Fifth Week in New Zealand

5 weeks have passed by already, I can't belive it. Time has just been flying. The Lecture Phase of my DTS is about half over.

Lectures for Week 5 were a little more laid back but, good none the less. Had our first American lecturer, Jen Patterson from Ohio, the head of YWAM Akron. She talked about the Fear of the Lord, what it really meant.

I Did not go out this week too much, stayed at the base mostly. However, a number of us went to a Christian concert last night. One of the bands playing was actually a group of YWAMers from a base in Australia on their Outreach Phase, Arbor Lungs.

So week 6... here I come!

Fourth Week in NZ

This week's lectures were great, we learned about the "Nature and Charecter of God." The speaker, Mr. Femi was a really good teacher. Next week we will learn about "Fear of the Lord."

Being a Saturday, we got some much needed "sleeping-in" done this morning. I will soon head to bed, it is already 11pm. Just finished off our 4th week of DTS watching Mulan (Narnia the night before). I can't think of a better way to end a week than to watch a Disney Movie. Tomorrow we will have some student-led worship as the staff will still be gone until late afternoon.

I think we have been handling the absence of staff really well. Nothing too serious has arisen, we know the rules and have kept them well.

A large number of the youth, myself not included, hald a Volleyball tournament today. The chapionship game will be held tomorrow afternoon.

Though we are enjoying a day of sun, after 3 days of wind and rain... it would have still been nice to cool off at the waterfall in the "Valley." However, it is still closed today, has been since yeasterday. Due to all the horrible weather that the edges of Cyclone Winston brought. The river has been too high for us to safely go down, much less swim. It should be opened back up tomorrow, hopefully.

So to wrap things up, there is not much in regards to discussing my explorations this week however, I did get an interesting email this morning. Apparently, I got a jury summons. Not much I can do, I mean I am kind of preoccupied at the moment... to say the least. Good thing mom stayed behind this time, she will call the clerk tomorrow to make known my unnegotiable absence.

Well, I need to get to bed now. Signing-off!

Cyclone Winston

The weather has been really dreary here latley, to say the least. I found out today that there is a catagory 4 cyclone, named Winston, north of #NewZealand, near Fiji and Tonga. So, please #prayforFijiandTonga.

According to a news report (link), NZ is not safe either. The storm could possibly turn back toward NZ.

Third Week In NZ: School and Fun

This past week has been really busy. However, it has been fun nonetheless.

The main DTS lectures this week covered "Hearing God's Voice." In the weekly Medical/Compassion Stream lectures, we covered vitals. I learned how to take blood pressure as well as calculate breathing and heart rates.

This past Wednesday the school scheduled a bug man to come and treat the place as normal bi-annual protocol. This meant that the main "Center" had to be clear of people for at least 4 hours.

So, in making sure that everyone was taken care of, we were given the afternoon away from base at Mt. Maunganui, just north of the city of Taurunga. At first a group of us hiked up to the summit of the mountain and had lunch, which we had pre-packed at breakfast. The views are amazing!

After lunch, we spent time down at the beach, though I soon left to trakdown a good fruit smoothie to reward my hiking efforts. Eventually I did take a quick dip in the ocean. There is a lot of seaweed there but, that is only part of the fun.

Mt. Maunganui is certainly a must see should you ever visit the area. Even if you, like me, are not into hiking and climbing, a once in a lifetime visit to the summit is totally worth the effort!

Second Week in NZ

God has been moving greatly in the lives of us all here at YWAM Tauranga. Things have been really busy this last week with our "Ministry Placements" starting. Today, I could not make it to church due to "Weekend Warriors," where students are rotated (5 at a time) to stay back on Saturdays or Sundays to keep the base running.

Due to a lack of drivers, I did not get to go to Mongolian BBQ yesterday. However, I did go to McDonald's... this is about the 6th country I have done so in. I got a Strawberry Kiwi Fanta Frostee, a New Zealand specialty! :)

Will try to make plans with some fellow students to go to "The Strand" (the main shopping/dining area in downtown Tauranga) this week. Taurunga is such a beautiful city and I will explore it at every chance that I am given!