What's on your mind?

You know what's funny? People often ask me, "What are you going to do next?" I love how people ask me that, as if I definitely know what I'll be doing...I wish it were that simple. However, I do believe that God is leading, guiding, and directing me to do His ministry and His will wherever my feet will take me...and I must say, where it may scare others...I get so pumped about it!

I'm praying about going to South Korea in September/October to teach English for two years. People say that I'm crazy,but I look at it as another ministry field, another way to build relationships, another way to be stretched, another way to share my faith, another way to show Christ in my daily life...why wouldn't I want to go?If you would pray about this for me...that would be muchly appreciated.

I have just over a month left in New Zealand. That is absolutely mental! Time certainly has flown by, but I wouldn't have changed anything...my time here has been definitely the biggest adventure of my life, it has stretched me in so many ways that I can't even begin to count, and it's not done yet..that's the best part! I know that my ministry here isn't done...that excites me.

I came across this passage today as I was reading...and it's very common, but if you really read through it and dig into what it's saying...oh my, it's powerful. Be encouraged.

"To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy-to the only God our Saviour, be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

How powerful is that?! He can keep us from falling...He presents us before His presence and with joy! The "Only God"...the only one...give him glory, majesty, power, authority...and note the exclamation point at the end!

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Prune

If you're a person who likes to plant things, you may have to get out the shears and remove all the dead parts of the plant or bush. Pruning is the process of removing certain above-ground elements from a plant. This process usually includes removal of diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant.

Random topic I know, but I was reading in John 15 yesterday and I came across the passage that talks of God being the vine and we are the branches. It says in verse 2, "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

I looked at this and thought, "God is pruning me." As a Christian, it is my aim to be fruitful and to do what the Lord has called me to do. However, sometimes things can creap in and cause us to get things that need to be pruned...things that are diseased, dead, or unwanted in our Christian faith/walk. So what does God do? He prunes us. Some people need more pruning than others and some don't even realize that pruning needs to take place, so they have let those unwanted portions get overgrown...but God comes in with his shears and prunes it away...He wants it to be fruitful and multiply.

Have you allowed God to prune you lately? Or...are you trying to do the pruning yourself? If we remain in Him, then He remains in us...so, let God do the pruning and let us be fruitful.

Reunion Adventure...

For those of you that have been faithful readers...thank you. To those of you who haven't been...you can totally catch up!Anyways...I have been really excited for the month of February to come. I met this really neat kid at camp in America. We'll call him...David Freakin Bosma. He's quite the character and we bonded at camp. Anyways...he's a kiwi and I wanted to see him when I was here.Well folks...this past Sunday I had the honor of seeing Dave again! It had been five months since we had seen each other. He's moved up to Auckland to attend Bible college and trust me, there will be more adventures with the great, the famous, David Freakin Bosma.
I'm not about to go on a lame adventure...so where did we go? We went to the coromandel peninsula...which is about 2.5-3 hours south of Auckland. Me, Brent, Evy, Michelle, and Dave hopped into the soccer mom mini van (Brent's wheels) and we headed south, but not for the winter...We spent the night on Sunday night and the next day the boys went to a hot water beach to go surfing, while Michelle and I hiked to Cathedral's Cove...where Prince Caspian was filmed. Later we went to a beach in a town that I can't pronounce so I'm not even going to try...and I really wanted to try something new...and Dave brought a skim board...so what did I do? Well, after trying a few times (more like 20), I managed to have my feet slip out from under me and I went tumbling to the ground..while Dave said, "No one falls on their first try." Yeah right...well, I succeeded at skimboarding...I wasn't great and it doesn't come naturally, but it's defs something that I want to do again. Thanks Dave.

This was the a picture taken at the cove.

This is actually where they filmed the opening scene of Prince Caspian where the kids enter into Narnia for the first time...watch the movie and you'll see.

From L to R: David Freakin Bosma, Me, Kim Gower. We all met at Camp Ladore in the summer of '08. I have been able to hang out with Kim quite a bit since being here and now that Dave is finally up in Auckland, I have no doubt that I'll be hanging out with him quite a bit.

Something crazy to think about...I was originally supposed to be flying home to the States tomorrow Feb. 18th, but I changed my flight to March 31st. How crazy is that to think about?!

Be blessed and be a blessing.

A Visit from ME to NZ

This past week...I got quite the blessing. My pastor and his family came over from the States. They had two days in Auckland, so I definitely took advantage of that time with them. I think it would be safe to say that every person that lives overseas dreams of that time where someone from their hometown that means a lot to them...comes to visit them and see who they minister to, work with, and who they have come to love. That's why having the Burns family here was such an enormous blessing.

They flew in on Tuesday morning at 6 am, so I met them at the airport (after having an energy drink) and led them to their hotel in Takapuna. Unfortunately the hotel wouldn't let them in until later that afternoon, so they went up to the Yates' house for a nap. Later, they sat with Reuben, Tom, Phil, and I and we went over the Kiwi sayings...what a hoot!

That night, I had invited quite a few people who mean tons to me...to come up for a BBQ at the Yates house to meet my pastor and his family. Talk about another blessing. These people showed up to meet my pastor, but they showed me how much they care about me. Thanks guys! After a long night of fun, fellowship, and food, the Burns headed back to their hotel only to have a few hours of sleep until our next adventure.

The next day, I met them at 8:30 am (they like early!) and we headed to the skytower. I hadn't done this yet, so I was stoked! We went up, taking tons of pictures, watching people bungee off as well, and just enjoyed the sites. We then headed to Victoria Markets, but not before we stopped off at Starbucks for a tasty treat...can't take the American out of us, that's for sure. We then headed to Parnell rose gardens because I knew that Randall would totally appreciate this aspect of New Zealand beauty...as he has a green thumb.

Later in the evening, I took them to Muriwai beach to see the gannets as well as a New Zealand sunset. It truly was such a blessing to share part of this experience with them. They now know who I've worked with, who I love, and why it will be so hard for me to leave here. What a blessing!