one week in...

Hi from South Africa! Sorry I've been bad about updating my blog for the past little bit, but I thought it more appropriate to spend the past week just being with James and enjoying the little time we had together. And it was so amazing! Here are some highlights to start out (I don't have a ton of time... but I'll continue to update as I can get to internet cafes)

My flight from NZ to SA -

Absolutely insane.

First of all, the restrictions for how much baggage we were allowed were very poorly communicated. I was 9 kilos over (which, at $70 per kilo, would have cost me $600 something to pay the excess baggage fee), and had to leave quite a few things behind. With no time to spare, an airline employee walked us to the front of security and got us, sweating and shaking from fear of missing our flight, to our gate on time!

The next part of the adventure was getting to the Johannesburg airport. After the 14 hour flight, as we started to make our descent, the pilot told us that the weather was too bad to land and we had to just go back up and circle around for a while. He tried again about 20 minutes later, and as we got below the cloud cover, it was pouring rain and extremely windy. There was so much turbulence, and then all of a sudden our plane hit a big pocket of air and got really jolted. People were in midair, everyone screamed, and people started crying. Then, the same thing happened again, and the chorus of vomit started to ripple through the cabin. A little girl two rows behind me screamed, "Mommy, I don't want to die!!" At this point, I am in full brace position, heart beating out of my chest, praying with everything I have that I (and the girl 2 rows behind me) won't die on this plane and that we will land safely. About a minute later (the longest minute of my life), we landed and cheers of relief and joy erupted from the passengers. Quite an experience.

The adventure wasn't over yet! After we had waited in the South African Airlines line for 30 minutes, we found out at 6:15PM that our tickets had been mysteriously exchanged for a flight on British Airways at 6PM. We then ran through the terminal, got in the line for British Airways, and luckily, that flight had been delayed, so we could still make it. Once we got to the gate, there was an announcement that the flight was "indefinitely delayed", so I went to go get a bottle of water. As I was walking to the store to get my water, I noticed an incredibly handsome bearded man running through the airport in a white Miami vice-esque blazer and cowboy boots. Could it be? Yes, it was James, running to catch his flight. Dumbfounded, I yelled out to him. He saw me, screamed in disbelief, and, in full sprint, clotheslined me/picked me up and carried me about 10 steps with him, kissed me, and said he'd see me in Cape Town. Quite the dramatic reunion.

Our plane did finally leave, after changing gates and aircraft, and two hours later, we arrived in Cape Town where James was waiting for us. James and I had a proper reunion, got our rental car and navigated our way to the hotel, arriving at about 1AM, 4 hours after we had expected to check in. Better late than never.

Day 1:

We woke up at 10AM, so upset because we thought we had missed breakfast. As I thumbed through the hotel info booklet, I realized that breakfast didn't end until half-past, so I rushed James out the door so we could get some food. And did we EVER get some food. The buffet breakfast at the Protea was AMAZING! They had bacon, sausage, potato wedges, a chef to prepare your eggs, yogurt, cereal, all kinds of fruit, all kinds of breads/rolls/danishes... fresh fruit juices... it was amazing! James' favorite part was the "chef's special" that changed each day and thus was a fun surprise to look forward to every morning. I've put up some pictures of our hotels in my album, so please have a look!

After the feast, we did some walking down Long St. (the really touristy, famous street in Cape Town), walked through some markets, and down through the government gardens. There are some photos up of this in my albums so make sure you check them out! We even saw an albino squirrel. After a few hours of wandering, we made it back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with the Lamonts, a couple that go to All Saints with us, and their children. We ate at the restaurant in their hotel, which was really amazing and we had such a good time seeing some familiar faces and getting to know the Lamonts better. Crazy that we can travel halfway around the globe and still know someone. Small world!

album (in case you forgot): http://picasaweb.google.com/chelsea.alanna.nielsen/

More to come....

where has the time gone?

guys, I can't believe I am less than a week away from flying to Cape Town. It feels so surreal at this point. I haven't started packing (procrastination...much like my first round of packing if you will recall), I haven't bought any of the things I need... luckily James & I have his mom who was so kind to reserve a car & hotel for us, so I do have a place to stay when I get there... but that's about it!

it became VERY real last night at our "Love Feast" (what they call the celebration at the end of lecture phase) that we really are getting ready to move on to the next portion of the trip. I was on the dinner prep team, and somehow I got voted to be the person in charge of the cooking - a feast for 30 people - - 3 legs of lamb, 5 whole chickens, sweet potato casserole from scratch, roasted potatoes and onions, roasted pumpkin, salad with fresh veggies, apple crisp, strawberries. Not a small task. Not to mention our oven is sooo old and not effective... Insane! I cut myself twice, have 4 blisters on my hands (from peeling the sweet potatoes), and was SO exhausted by the time 630 rolled around (after 4 hours of cooking)! Everyone was asking me questions left and right and I had to manage everything. At the end, they all thanked me a thousand times and said I was so good, not snapping at anyone, not getting stressed, just keeping everything flowing. Which is good because on the inside I was getting nervous about the time and everything coming together. Let's just say its hard to cook for 30 when you have to wait for one dish to be cooked so you can use that pan for the next dish. All in all, it was REALLY fun, and I loved being in charge of something like that (I secretly like being the go-to person I think - - it was fun)

anyway, i don't have a whole lot of time to write - we're doing a lot of outreach prep this week and won't have time to come get on the internet... but hopefully once james & I get to Cape Town, we'll do some updating together !

love and miss everyone very much...

sulphur city

Just wanted to update you guys about last weekend!

We had such a great weekend - -

On Saturday, we went to Bethell Beach, a really pretty black sand beach about 40 minutes from the city. Afterward, we were invited to a cookout at the home of the pastor who has allowed us to have our classes in his church for the past 11 weeks. He and his wife barbecued for us and we had such a good time just h

anging out and relaxing. It was a great day!

On Sunday, nine of us rented a van and took a trip to Rotorua, a city about 3 hours away, known for crazy outdoor activities and natural hot springs. Hot springs = geothermal activity -= sulfur = the city smells like rotten eggs. You get used to it pretty quickly though.

A few people (not me) went Zorbing - this crazy thing where you get inside a huge plastic ball filled with a bit of water and get rolled down a hill. Later in the day, we went to a natural hot spring that was recommended to us. I was expecting to pay to get in, have a building to change in, etc. but to my surprise, we drove down a dirt road, got out and walked into the woods, and there it was! Basically just a stream

in the woods. Except that it was like a hot tub! There was a small waterfall and a little reservoir where we got in. It was so hot we could only stay in for about 20 minutes before we were all boiling.

the kingdom

So, we have been learning this week all about the kingdom of God, what that even means, and what our role is in "kingdom living". To do this we've looked at the parables that describe the kingdom (lots in Matthew), and if I had to write my own parable right now, it would go something like this:

The kingdom of God is like Thanksgiving with no turkey, but plenty of love & thankfulness to make up for it.

or

The kingdom of God is like a pie maker, who when finding that there's no canned pumpkin in New Zealand, gathered his friends and celebrated anyway.

Yes, it's true, we didn't have a Thanksgiving meal (for various reasons), which broke my little American heart, but somehow I have survived, drowning my sorrows in cappuccinos and carrot cake (the most fall-ish item on the menu). We had a great time though, all gave thanks for various things in our lives, not the least of which were our families and friends back home that love and support us, especially now.

So, I just wanted to write and say how thankful I am for all of you - your support, your love, your taking the time to write me, your prayers -- just your being in my life. You'll never know what an impact it has, and how much gratitude I have in my heart for you guys!

Happy Thanksgiving!

new pictures to enjoy

i just put up a bunch of new pictures that i got from my friend robert (he takes LOTS of pictures!) from the whole time we've been here - our city lights project, piha beach, and our dessert night.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chelsea.alanna.nielsen

enjoy!

lordship & lambs

This past week was such a blur – the days go slowly but the weeks just go so fast. Our topic was Lordship and our speaker was Mark Parker, and he’s maybe the craziest man I’ve ever met. I mean he was just wild – yelling things, jumping around the room, just so animated and full of energy – and he’s 55! But all the craziness aside, he is one of those people who just makes you want to love Jesus more, and that’s the thing I’ll remember most.

He started the week out by saying, “Lordship is not about proving or explaining how Jesus is Lord – he already is! Whether you want to believe it or not! HA – HA! So Lordship is about making Jesus your Lord. And that’s what we’re going to talk about.”

For the rest of the week, we mostly talked about what happens when you become a Christian, and what the process looks like after that. He separated the self into body (physical), soul (mind, will, emotions), and spirit (intuition, communion, conscience, connection to God). When you are “re-born”, your spirit is made new, but your soul is not. Thus, it is a process of renewing your mind so that your spirit and mind are in order and your body follows suit (Thus, Romans 12:2 “be transformed by the renewing of your mind”)

So the most memorable thing we did this week was on Friday. We essentially re-created the steps that the Jews used to take in the Old Testament to enter the temple, but re-vamped them to reflect New Testament living. The steps were (based on the books of Leviticus/Hebrews):

1. Gate of the Court / Jesus, Thanksgiving

2. Outer Court / Praise

3. The Brazen Altar / The Cross (burnt offering, sin offering)

4. The Brazen Laver / The Word

5. The Golden Candlestick / Holy Spirit

6. The Table of Showbread / Communion

7. The Altar of Incense / Prayer

8. Tearing of the Veil / Absence of alienation

9. Ark of the Covenant / Holy Spirit

10. Cloud of Glory / Worship

It sounds a little crazy, but I found that this is a really similar pattern to the way that liturgical churches structure their services. We give thanks & praise, we confess our sins, we are “washed with the word” (readings), we receive communion, we pray, and we worship. The only difference with this was that we did everything (thanks, praise, confession, etc) out loud and individually instead of collectively as one body or silently in our minds. But it is a biblical way that we truly enter into God’s presence, with no hindrances. And it lasted for 14 hours. Yeah! It was a crazy day, but it was really good. There was a real sense of God’s presence in the room.

On Saturday, we decided we needed to do something really restful, since Friday was such a long day. We went to a sheep farm and saw lots of animals, watched a sheep get sheared, and I even got to feed a baby lamb! That was definitely the highlight! I should be able to put some pictures up soon! J

over the hill with hope

So, it's official, we are on the downhill slide of lecture phase. Just finished with week 7, so we only have 5 more teaching weeks! It seems to hard to believe - - on the one hand I feel like it has flown by and it seems like just yesterday that we were in week one and thinking it would never end... but at the same time it feels like I have been here SO long and am SO far from home and my life there. It's a strange push and pull that I feel when I think about how time is passing. Anyway, there are a lot of "things" we have done since the last update that I wrote - went to a black sand beach (Piha), had teaching on "biblical worldview" (meaning the perspective we have of the world as Christians), talked about work and what it looks like to work for the kingdom in "secular" jobs - please let me know if you want any info about that - I have a great bible study type activity that we did, and there is a different one for Accounting, Administration, Agriculture, Art, Business, Communication, Development, Education, Engineering, Government, Health Care, Motherhood, and Relief Work. I just have different scriptures for each one that show what the bible says about those professions and how they are related to different aspects of God's character. I did the one for Business (although I'll probably go back and do Art, Motherhood, Development...) and I found it really good to go through and give myself some perspective about the work I'll be doing some day.

We watched 2 Justice movies last week - War Dance, and Mugabe and the White African, which were really illuminating to me about the situation in Northern Uganda of child soldiers and war children, and then about Zimbabwe and the situation there with white farmers and all of the economic turmoil and "reverse" racism that's going on. These were 2 subjects that I really knew nothing about and really moved me to compassion. I urge you to at least watch the you tube videos I linked on here, and if you are more interested, to buy the films (both available on Amazon)

This week our teaching was on "The Father Heart of God", and our speaker was a guy named Etienne Pieterse. He's actually from Cape Town, so it was cool to get some perspective from a South African about the place where I'll be starting in January. His story alone is incredible - he was in gangs, he was a Satan-worshipper, he was just "bad" in every way you can imagine, and God turned his life around completely. He has been working with YWAM for a long time now, and as you can imagine, he just has a wealth of knowledge to share. The thing that I loved the most about him was that he just didn't walk in any kind of judgment. He didn't put anyone down for anything, he didn't let his preferences for things cloud his enjoyment of things that he didn't prefer, and he just was generally happy about whatever was going on.

Today, our Justice Friday topic was "Children at Risk", and our speaker was a woman named Erin Lucas, who told her story about how she got involved with being an advocate especially for underage prostitutes in Auckland. Erin is a (young) mother, and actually the first mother that we've had speak to us on the school, which to me was really valuable and refreshing (I miss you, mom!).

The thing that I really enjoyed most about her was a story that she told us about when she and her husband were trying to have their first child. It took them two and a half years to get pregnant, and she just talked about how she went through this journey of grief, over and over again each month learning that she still wasn't pregnant. And she said one day she was reading Romans 5:5, "and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us", and she just was so confused... she said her version read "hope does not disappoint us" - and she just kept thinking, 'it is the HOPE that makes me disappointed each month. If I could just stop HOPING that I'd get pregnant, then I could move on and it wouldn't bother me'. So she got into this personal bible study of hope, because she wanted to figure out how that verse could possibly be true. What she told us that she finally came to realize was that hope is a confident expectation of something good..and the reason that hope can't disappoint is that it opens up our hearts to God's love and goodness, and it is in that openness that he fills us with his Holy Spirit. True, hope can stretch us to the point that it hurts but ultimately it WON'T put us to shame because in the process, we just learn more of who God is, and it starts not to matter so much what your situation is at the moment, but rather that you are able to move past your situation because God fills you up to live for more than just that circumstance.

This message was clearly something that God wanted me to hear, because James's mom brought it up to me last week... James brought it up to me yesterday, and then Erin talked about it today... and I've been dealing with this kind of stuff with my arthritis situation - I have been struggling with how to feel about it, because people have prayed healing over me, and I've seen doctors, I'm on medication... but nothing has really happened and I am still in pain daily. But this message was just so powerful to me, because it gave me this whole new perspective that God is just good, and I don't want to focus on the "why me" questions, I don't even want to go there. He is good, and I know He is and I want that to be my focus. And I say that, not in a naiive way, but in confident expectation. I am hopeful, and it's not a hope for tomorrow or the next day that I'll be healed... it's not a hope that will go away in a week if it hasn't come to fruition... but as James reminded me this week, it is a hope in things unseen. So, that's kind of hard to understand. But I think what I mean is, my hope is not conditional, because God is not conditional.

This was a long and somewhat weighty post but I hope that it was hopeful, because that is what I feel... I love you guys very much!

tough love & city lights

Last weekend, we had an outreach opportunity that was pretty awesome called “City Lights”. It’s been an ongoing project for 4 years, operating a few times per year. Each time, multiple churches from Auckland join together to reach out to the local community in different ways – to be “lights” to the city – thus the name.

On Friday night, there was a kick-off to the day of service where we just heard a little bit about what we would be doing, and a young pastor named Brooke Turner gave a message about service and evangelism and what it looks like in modern times. His message was seriously convicting, in such a good way. Instead of many of the messages we hear these days about how the church is failing and the world is hopeless, he did point out that the church is “missing the mark” (the definition he gave for sin), and that it was our responsibility to do something about it. And that it is TOTALLY possible for us to do that.

He talked about how for so long, the model of evangelism has looked like this:

Where there is this paradigm that we as Christians are separate from non-Christians, yet the cross brings us together... and if they would only walk across that cross to come and meet us on the other side, things would be great! And we’re just so afraid of falling into death and destruction that we wouldn’t dare walk across to meet them. And really – this model is correct from a theological standpoint – the cross DOES bring us together in that we are sinful, desperate people and God is savior of all, but this doesn’t work from a methodological standpoint. We can’t just yell from across the great divide and expect people to come running to join us on Sunday morning. Rather, we create some COMMON GROUND where we can both meet in the middle. And let me be the first to admit that I overthink, overanalyze, and just generally mess this up. That’s what was so great about his message – it confronted me with the fact that I’ve done this and instead of just making me paralyzed with condemnation, it spurred me on to (a) laugh at myself for being so ridiculous and (b) realize that I can stop overthinking it and just be a normal person - don’t make it weird and don’t have an agenda with each non-Christian I meet, but just be their friend. Just ask how their day was. Simple. Not as scary and complicated as it has seemed in my mind sometimes. I don’t know if that makes sense – I have a feeling other people have faced that same issue from time to time, because we are kind of taught to believe in an “US” and “THEM” attitude, which leads to a lot of separation and weirdness.

Anyway, it was a great way to kick off the day of service. On Saturday morning, we got up really early and met at our church. We got into our groups, which went to different places around the city (about 6 places), and my group was going to the United Maori Mission, an organization that seeks to bring in troubled Maori men in need from across New Zealand and give them a place to live and have a safe environment. Our task was to clean, plaster, sand, and paint the hallways of their residence area. There were about 10 of us from YWAM, and one guy, Johnny, our fearless leader who had been a painter one summer a few years back.

We had a great time – it was a lot of hard work, but I realized that I really like doing things like that, like manual labor (which some of you will find hilarious to read because I have been notoriously lazy at times...) but yeah, I think it’s just the signing up part that I don’t like – I actually do like the work and can motivate myself to do it. I even used a power sander for the first time in my life – which I actually didn’t like – I just don’t think I was meant to operate dangerous machinery. Once I realized, “Wow, I could really sand my finger off”, I went back to the old sandpaper and elbow grease method, which worked just fine. And the painting was great too – all that practice of painting with Kendal on her clients’ houses...on my mom’s house when we did renovations... it really paid off. I was giving tips and teaching people about how to cut in on corners, how to roll most effectively, etc. So thank you Kendal for always being so generously willing to tell me I was doing it wrong... tough love pays off sometimes.

relationships & chocolate

This week has been really interesting & challenging for sure. Our speaker, Patrick Dodson, www.patrickdodson.net, spoke on “Relationships” (all kinds- family, friends, guy-girl), and it was definitely a week full of interesting theories, great personal anecdotes, really great presentation – he is a photographer and does a lot with graphic design & that type of thing, so everything he showed us was really visually cool. You can check out some of his podcasts on his website to get a feel for the kind of speaker he is. He’s also an author and his most recent book is about relationships as well.
Patrick spoke a lot about identity and finding your identity so that you can better serve God through your particular gifts & talents. He described this as a great way to not get “burnt out” like so many people do when they’re volunteering or serving in some way. But if you are really engaged in what you’re doing because it stimulates your identity, that becomes sustainable and you’ll be able to do it long-term. While I think there is some element of serving simply to serve (not based on identity – for example, cleaning up for someone – no one would say their identity includes cleaning toilets) I do think he has a point about really trying to be in touch with what you’re good at and capitalizing on that to make more of an impact.
It made me think a lot about wanting to use hospitality (cooking, hosting people) as a way of serving people around me. I want to think of unique ways of inviting new people over… and hopefully sometime soon being able to open a café type place that can be an open door for all kinds of people to come in, have some coffee, shop around a little, hang out, talk, listen to good music, maybe get involved in some of our activities to meet new people and get connected in the community (This is my best friend Maddie’s & my dream – to open a place like this! To combine fair trade coffee, wholesome food, the creative arts, music, supporting local businesses and people, and community development into one building... yes it is a tall order but it’s our dream! I can’t wait to find out where James & I will be living – to actually start on some of this stuff…). But yeah even before the store eventually opens (it’s happening…), James and I really feel strongly about doing this as a family, having our doors being open doors, knowing our neighbors, developing strong relationships with people around us, bringing them in to our life by symbolically bringing them into our home. Again, pretty excited about starting that. And hearing the talks this week gave me a lot of confidence in that, confidence to just get started.
Because Patrick has a similar leaning toward hospitality, he invited all of the DTS students to his house on Wednesday night for a dessert night. So we all got together and helped make some desserts (cookies, Mexican chocolate hot pots, ricotta cheesecakes), and he is a barista so he taught some of us how to make cappuccinos & lattes. It was so much fun – it made me realize just how much I miss being in a HOME... not a hostel, but a home. Also I will totally be bringing that chocolate hot pot idea home – just melted dark chocolate & cream with cinnamon & chili powder... with a little bit of whipped cream on top. Simple & amazing for the serious dark chocolate lover in all of us. Here are 2 pictures from the night:

alive & well

I know I haven’t been updating too faithfully this past week – but I think it’s because there’s been a lot of “idea” and “thought” stuff going on, and not so much action. So here’s a little recap of some big things that have happened recently:

Tauranga House of Prayer (THOP): Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings (8-12) of last week were spent in the prayer room at the THOP, where a musician/band would play and you were able to sit and pray for the full four hours. I think the thing I realized most was how little “prayer endurance” I have! But our speaker that week, Aaron Walsh (the founder of THOP), encouraged us that God is even pleased with the 10 minutes of solid prayer we got in if that’s all we could do, and that we should ask him for the grace for 11 minutes the next day. Aaron was at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, and then pioneered THOP with his wife, so this man essentially has spent the past 10 years of his life in prayer. And being around someone like that is intense. The thing that was most notable to me was just his sheer conviction that God loves him. He repeatedly said, “You just can’t convince me that God doesn’t like me”, which is a certainty that so many people, Christians included, simply lack. Just witnessing his dedication to prayer was astounding (he said he thinks God looked down and said, “ok, who hates prayer the most?” and Aaron raised his hand, so God chose him to live this life of prayer, haha). He talked to us a lot about being authentic – about leaving behind the “me-centered” gospel that we hear so often: “if you become a Christian, you will get everything you need and you will be happy forever etc etc”. Aaron talked a lot about how the gospel is primarily about God and his glory, and that we should stop focusing on what we can get from God and instead focus on WHO he is and his nature and character (which is, ironically, far better than any thing he could give).

Aaron prayed for some of us individually, and when he prayed for me, he said a lot of things that were really awesome (like, things that he felt God saying to me, etc), but some highlights were that he said that God sees me as the “queen of hope” – he said that over and over again, and then the second thing was that he said that it would be a part of my life to share that hope with other people – sort of like my “ministry” or something. Prophecy and that kind of thing is really new and unusual to me (normal to a lot of people here), but at that moment it was really encouraging and real – what it is supposed to be.

Stop Demand: we spent Thursday & Friday of last week with Denise Ritchie, a former YWAMer who is a lawyer in New Zealand. She is the head of an organization called Stop Demand, a nonprofit focused on stopping the demand for sex trafficking. She said that she would go to conferences about sex trafficking, and would always hear about the trafficking victims, how to help them, and the traffickers, how to punish/rehabilitate them, but that she never heard anyone mention the fact that men are fueling the demand for sex trafficking, and without that demand, the industry wouldn’t exist. It’s crazy to call it that – an industry – but it is… it is the 3^rd most profitable criminal activity after drugs & weapons. And it’s growing – because it is a unique crime where you can make a profit over and over again. For instance, with drugs, you sell the drug once and it is consumed and gone, but with people you can sell them over and over again (that sounds cruel but it is what happens all over the world). So we spent a lot of time in group discussions about how to re-educate men all over the world to value women so that this industry, and many other kinds of exploitation (pornography, prostitution) will stop. It’s a huge issue when you look at the big scale, but I think it starts with encouraging the men around you to respect and value women, and having those men then be willing to stand up against any future denigration of women. The largest reason that I can imagine to give a man to value a woman is that God made woman of his own image, that he formed her with his hands, and that she is fearfully and wonderfully made.

Okay! Well I will update again soon. I love you & miss you all.

Welcome to Tauranga

We started our 3-hour drive Friday afternoon and arrived in Tauranga at 530PM, right on time for our welcome at the Marae.

We were briefly prepped for the welcome ceremony but the only thing we knew for sure was that the girls had to wear skirts and Steph and I needed to prepare a song for our group to sing.

As we got out of the vans, we lined up at the entrance of the Marae, girls in the front, boys in the back, and at the very front we were led in by 2 Maori girls. A woman was standing in front of us, and she was calling out to us, while the two Maori girls called back to her – a sort of call and response that signified that we were welcome to walk in. We walked in and were seated, this time girls in the back and boys in the front. The history of these walking/seating arrangements is that historically when the Maori entered the Marae, they could be attacked from behind, so the women were put in front in order that they might be protected from the attackers. Similarly, once seated, the danger would have come from the front, so the men sat at the front to once again protect the women. I thought that was pretty cool because we hear about so many cultures that don’t value women, but the Maori value women very highly… as we were told, they are looked to as holding the “spirit of life” within them.

Next, one of the Maori men made a speech to us, which we did not understand because the whole thing was in Maori. It sounded pretty angry if you ask me, and he was pretty intimidating to top it all off, but we were assured later that it was a warm welcome. All the Maoris that were there sang us a song next, which again we did not understand. Sounded nice though. Afterward, it was our turn, and Andy (one of our staff) had to make a speech back to them, just thanking them for having us, and then we sang our song to them (How Great is Our God). At that point, we lined up and did what they call a “hongi” – a Maori custom where you put your face up to the other persons face – forehead and nose touching, and you both breathe in. This is to signify that we both breathe the same air – i.e. we are related. This is the final step to being welcomed into the Marae! Here's a cool picture I found to illustrate -

Later that night we had a dinner that they had prepared for us in the typical food preparation style of "hangi" - basically, the food is cooked over hot coals in the ground, buried and cooked all day, and then taken out when you're ready to eat.

We all stayed in the Marae together on mattresses on the floor. It was incredibly entertaining hearing who snores, who talks in their sleep, who wakes up too early and who goes to bed too late.

It was definitely a growing experience for all of us - we feel a lot closer as a group now I think, which is always really cool. More to come soon...

Fair Trade Friday

Last Friday our lecture was about fair trade. For those of you who haven’t heard of fair trade, it is loosely defined as a financial relationship between producers/seller/consumers based on what goods are actually worth. The issue was brought up by the movie that we watched Thursday afternoon, Black Gold. Black Gold is a documentary about the coffee industry and how corrupt it has become. Essentially, what’s happening is that coffee prices are being set in a board room in New York City, based on these things called “futures” which are the result of people looking at the going rate of coffee and making a guess as to what it will be worth tomorrow. And people are paid tons of money to do this!

Anyway, the end result is that coffee farmers are forced to sell their coffee according to these “futures” and not at all based on what the coffee is worth. They are often forced into this because of the “free trade” agreements that the US and other developed nations have coaxed them into by the promise of international aid. What “free trade” effectively does is open up the borders of developing nations (eliminating tariffs, etc). The irony is that the countries end up losing out more by signing these agreements than if they had never had the aid to begin with. The statistic stands that if developing nations in Africa could increase their exports by 1%, they would make 5 times the amount they are currently receiving in aid.

So, fair trade has been developed to combat this issue of economic exploitation. And there are all kinds of fair trade items – coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, clothing, the list goes on. To be clear, “Fair Trade” is a brand – it is a seal that is put onto items that have been Fair Trade Certified, and that is a guarantee that whatever item you are buying was in no way involved in unfair or unethical business practices. So while “Fair Trade” is a brand, it has been formed out of the idea of trading fairly. You will see/hear people talk about items that have been fairly traded, but unless there is a Fair Trade seal, there is no guarantee that the item was traded completely fairly. Some people complain because it costs money to have your items Fair Trade certified, but the cost is little compared to the impact it can have in profitability and a real chance at economic improvement for farmers all over the world.

And it’s not just that the farmers need greater profits, but rather that they need to break even - to survive. So many farmers are forced to sell their crops for half of what they’re worth – losing out each time they sell their products. Another important thing to remember is that in the US and many other developed nations, farmers are subsidized by the government, but in the poorest countries around the world, governments cannot afford to subsidize farmers, yet another compounding factor in the cycle of poverty.

So, I know that's a ton of information but this is something real that we can do to make a change. So look for Fair Trade certifications on the goods that are most often linked with economic exploitation & slave labor: coffee, tea, chocolate... and take a look at this link which is a really cool program to show you where your money goes when you pay for a cup of coffee. You can also check this out, which is a website dedicated to rating companies' ethical standards, mostly based upon labor practices.

Lots of information, I know, but thank you for reading it all! I think this is an issue that's so important because our choices do make a difference!

farewell for now

Just wanted to let everyone know that I won't be able to update the blog/call until the end of next week, because we are spending the week in Tauranga, a city about 3 hours from Auckland, and we'll be staying on a "marae" which is basically like sacred ground for the Maori (native) people. I think it will be a great trip, definitely unique! Can't wait to get you guys up to date next week. Love to everyone. Have a great week!

the moment we've all been waiting for

So, Tuesday was pretty normal (especially compared to the appendicitis-scare fiasco), and we were just learning from our speaker, Josh Menning, about the character and nature of God. Which has been really cool – he is so knowledgeable and passionate and we’ve all really enjoyed it a lot.

Tuesday afternoons are our “outreach prep” time, and at the beginning of it, Josie told us that the staff just hadn’t reached a decision about who was on what team, and they weren’t ready to release any information to us. So, we just talked for a while about general things that would be helpful on any outreach. So eventually we started talking about perspective and how important it was for us to have perspective, and Josie said we were going to play a game to get us in the right mindset. So, she said they were going to hand out a piece of paper to each of us and we had to find other people whose cards related to ours, and the pictures on each card would correspond and make a story that we had to figure out. So they hand out the cards, and tell us to open them. And what does mine have on it? A picture of an airplane with the South African flag on it. And truth be told - I really wanted to be on the South Africa team. So I’m sitting there, a little upset, because I’m thinking “why did they give me this picture? Now, if I got put on a different team, I would admittedly be pretty upset, As other people started coming to me with other South Africa-related pictures, we started trying to put the story together. As we are trying to do this, Josie says, “Okay, so let’s really try to work together to finish the stories, because… these are your outreach teams!”

Immediately we all kind of freaked out, did a big group hug, and were just so excited. And something else that’s great - - Erin is coming too! It’s me & Erin, Rachel (London), Minsoo (Maryland), Rebekka (Norway), Elise (Texas), Mikkel (Norway) and our staff leader is Andy (England). It’s a GREAT team – we all get along super well and just have really complimentary personality types. A guy who is in one of the other outreach teams made the comment that if we all were in outreach team Olympics, our team would win. I think that sums it up. :)

Anyway we are all VERY excited and have tons to do now… even though we won’t leave until the end of December, I know it will be here before we know it!

just another manic monday

Well, I suppose this story begins on Sunday night. After dinner, around 6PM, my stomach started hurting pretty badly, badly enough that I asked Erin to wash my dishes because I didn’t think I could make it. So I went to lie down, and after about 10 minutes, I got nervous that I was going to be sick. So I ran to the bathroom and sat on the floor for a while until the feeling had subsided a bit. At that point, I got Erin and had her sit with me in the bathroom. Just to give you an idea of how bad I was feeling, Erin was so disgusted by the bathroom floor that she just kept asking me to get up because it was so bad (the hostel bathrooms don’t get cleaned very often… or maybe ever, we’re not sure)

Anyway, a few minutes and antacids later, I started to feel a bit better, and went with Erin to her room and a few of us just talked and relaxed for a while. But the worst wasn’t over - - and as my stomach pain started to return around 9PM, I decided I didn’t want to stay awake any longer, so I took 2 Tylenol PMs in hopes of just “sleeping it off”.

Sadly, an hour later, I woke up in even worse pain, just constant shooting pains in my stomach. I went back to the filthy, yet somehow comforting bathroom floor (comforting maybe only because I knew if I did get sick, I was in the best possible place), and waited it out again. I returned to bed hoping that this would be the last of it.

Then, this whole process happened 2 more times. Sleep, waking, pain, bathroom floor, disgust with bathroom floor, not caring about how gross it was because I just felt so bad, returning to bed, and repeat.

The final time, I decided I couldn’t take it anymore (and was pretty scared that something was actually wrong), so I went downstairs to the reception to see what time it was. Completely expecting it to be 5AM after all of the turmoil, to my disappointment it was only 1:40AM. Knowing that I couldn’t make it the whole night through repeating this process, I went to the staff apartment to try to wake Craig & Jen to take me to the hospital.

So I knocked… and I knocked… and there was no answer (their room is set off from the hallway door, so they couldn’t hear me). So there I am, in terrible pain, 2AM, desperate, and I just decided I wanted to lie down. Right there. In the hallway. Mind you, I’ve never seen anyone vacuum that hallway. But I didn’t care. As I was contemplating my next plan of action, something amazing started to happen. The pain started to go away, just enough to motivate me to get up and go to bed, for the 4^th time. And by some miracle, this time I slept through the night.

I woke up still feeling a bit uneasy, but MUCH better. When I told the students & staff that next day, people still seemed pretty concerned, and Mikkel, one of the students who just graduated from medical school, asked to examine me. So we did that, and through the course of his examination, he became concerned because the pain I was having & the location of the pain was indicative of appendicitis. So – he said he recommended that I go to the doctor… RIGHT then. I will admit I was pretty much totally freaked out at this point.

But we walked, in the rain, to a little clinic here, and the doctor there felt pretty confidently that I was okay, because I had started to feel better, which doesn’t generally happen with appendicitis. So he told me to just monitor it throughout the day and come back if it got worse. And although I was deathly afraid that my appendix was just going to rupture at any moment, it didn’t! and I feel absolutely fine now! So basically it was the biggest fluke stomach pain ever, and I am officially attributing it to the broccoli I ate Sunday night (I remember a time in high school when I ate a good amount of broccoli and felt really sick, so I am thinking maybe there’s something in broccoli that my body can’t handle in large quantities). Anyway, I am fully recovered. And I have a crazy story to tell. So I hope you enjoyed it!

just call me the wilderness woman

Today we went hiking, a term I don't think I ever quite understood until today when we got out to the trail. To give you a better mental picture, they call it "tramping" in New Zealand, which to me, kind of says it all.

So, we are driving down "Scenic Drive", and there's a place where we pull off the road and park our cars, then literally just off this two lane road, there is an entrance that leads to a "trail", which consists of a partly cleared path with tree roots, huge rocks, branches, and more mud than I have ever seen. In NZ the mud is more like clay, so it's 100X more slippery. Half or more of our group ran off, leaving us with no idea of where to go (we have no map), so we decided to go right... which led pretty quickly back up to the road. All the while people are slipping and falling into the mud, grabbing onto tree branches for dear life, and cursing the rain that is starting to fall.

Once we got back up to the road, three of us (Stephanie, Lauren, and I) decided we didn't want to go back down for the full hike, which was supposed to take 4 hours. So we took everyone's valuables back to the van so they wouldn't get wet, and we prepared ourselves for an adventure of our own. We start down a different trail to a place called "Christian Road" which Stephanie is convinced should be renamed Devil's Way.

Ironically, the trail that we chose to go down, unbeknownst to us, was WAY more rugged and difficult than the one we had been on with the whole group. Pretty soon, we were headed through worse mud, bigger & more slippery rocks, except now we were going down inclines of about 50 degrees. ON THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN. Let's just say I have never done anything like that in my life. And to top it all off (Brice & everyone else who knows how un-athletic and un-outdoorsy I am will appreciate this), I was leading us down the trail.

Eventually, we came to a little place of civilization that we didn't know existed - there were some old men down there that run a "Dam Tram" and they told us that we could walk a little farther and see the water filtration system, which really wasn't much to look at, but it was cool to think about the fact that they actually gather water there from the dam and purify it for the city.

So, then we start the hike back up - we went a different way because we saw an entrance that said Scenic Drive - which was where we needed to go... and the men told us it was a longer trail, but we had time to kill so we did it anyway. Which was a very interesting choice. The incline going back up was about 65 degrees at some points... I literally had to stretch my leg up as far as it would go to boost myself up (kind of like pulling yourself out of a swimming pool)... which was much more difficult for the other girls because I have abnormally long legs so mine could reach up higher. Anyway, after about an hour, we made it back up to the road! We came out at a different point than where we started, but I thought we should turn right down the road (again, for those of you who know how bad my sense of direction is, it is hilarious that I was leading)...

At this point, I had so much adrenaline pumping through my body from just trying to survive up the side of this mountain, that I felt like I wanted to run down the road to try to find our vans. So I ran for a few minutes and eventually... there they were! Hallelujah. What a good day. Will post pictures soon!

canadians & choices

Our time with our first speaker, Phil Cunningham, has been pretty interesting so far. Phil was born in Ireland, is Canadian, but lives in California now with his wife & 2 girls (1on the way too!) He is pretty involved in raising awareness for justice issues of all kinds and has been introducing us to some cool stuff. My favorite thing so far has been something called the Girl Effect, an organization that promotes the education of young girls in an attempt to rectify situations of injustice that uneducated girls in poverty statistically face. Please take a look at their videos... they're really really cool & hopeful.

Well (drum roll please) we found out today where our potential outreach locations will be. There has been a lot of confusion because one of the staff members decided to step down last week, so we thought there were only going to be 2 outreaches instead of the 3 that there usually are. But unexpectedly, they decided to throw in a “wild card” which would be essentially student-led.

Anyway, without further ado, our locations are Muizenberg, South Africa; the Middle East (Israel or Jordan); and the wild card – either Thailand or Vanuatu (an island near New Zealand). Now, we are going to have a few days to process the choices and on Friday, each student will hand in their top choice & reasons why, and then the staff will try to assemble teams based on who lists which choices. It’s still possible that we will have only 2 teams, just depending on where the interest lies.

I’m fairly confident about where I want to go – but I think I’ll wait to say anything until we find out for certain where we’ll be sent. Anyway, this is exciting… thinking about the next step…I’m definitely ready to just find out!

weekend adventures

This Saturday we had our first weekend outing… they set up optional weekend day trips for us, and since we don’t have much else to do during the weekend, most of us went today...and probably will most Saturdays I’m guessing! We visited Mission Bay and Devonport, two little seaside towns right outside of Auckland, only about a 20 minute drive from the city.

It was a lot of fun, lots of pretty scenery – it was great to get out of the city. Living in the city is good because it’s “real” – we see poverty, homelessness, prostitution, real life… but after a week chock-full of that, yesterday was a much needed breath of fresh air. Not to mention it’s pretty nice to just take the time to realize and remember that we are in NEW ZEALAND! Walking through the city all week feels more like NYC or Chicago, but seeing the mountains and the beach was refreshing. Erin, Lauren and I ate lunch at a cute little café, grabbed coffee, walked around the little shops, and even walked a bit up a big mountain to get a great view of the bay and the city. Some great photo ops J

The highlight of the day was probably that Stephanie (see previous pictures), while attempting to slide down the mountain on a cardboard box, ripped the box and rolled/fell/tumbled down the mountain for a good 10 seconds. She was fine, no injuries, so it was ABSOLUTELY hilarious. Actually.... have a look for yourself.

While we were in Devonport, we got to go to a supermarket – that sounds totally boring and normal, but you have to realize that in Auckland city, there are no supermarkets. That sounds crazy but it’s true. So, walking inside, we felt like we had walked back into the United States for a brief moment in time. I don’t think we realized that we really missed home until then! I just kind of wandered around aimlessly, up and down the aisles, I must admit I have a soft spot for wandering grocery stores (James & I did this the first time we hung out alone... and have done so MANY times since then), so it was just great. More to come. Love.

More pictures!

Check out all my photos - link here to the right ---->

But here are a few!

Our group walking out onto Mission Bay

A great view of the city from a mountain in Devonport

St. Pauls - where we went to church this Sunday

Erin & Chelsea's Auckland Adventure

This may be my favorite picture that's ever been taken of me (credits to Johanna). In such a beautiful little field on the mountain in Devonport.

the kiwi life

Sorry for the lag time in posting… every time I sat down to write the past couple of days I somehow failed to finish a post, but I am determined now!

We’ve been in class a LOT… well, not so much in class as in the same building all day long. We get tons of breaks throughout the day, including “morning tea”, a personal favorite of mine J, but we do spend pretty much our entire day at the church building where our classes are held. We eat there, we hang out there, we have class there… needless to say I’m going to try out a different church this weekend just for a change of scenery!

Alright, so since it’s been a while…here are some highlights from the week!

1. Early in the week we each shared our stories, essentially just stories of how God entered our lives, how he has been present, what our pasts look like. I have to say it was a bit overwhelming. People have been through some really painful experiences – broken families, depression, drugs, anorexia, sexual abuse, homelessness – we are truly a community of the broken. I have to say, when I tell my story, I’m generally used to people thinking it’s pretty dramatic, but listening to the other students talk here, I realized I have no idea some of the things people have been through. But in every story, there is such great hope. Such faithfulness of God as our Comforter and Healer. It was extremely humbling for me and just a reminder of blessings that I often overlook.

2. I joined the dinner prep team and the worship team here, which is really exciting because those are two of my favorite things (cooking & singing) and it’s great to feel like I can use the things I’m gifted in to serve other people.

3. We’ve been learning about hearing God’s voice and engaging in intercessory prayer, which is essentially asking God what or who to pray for, and then doing so. So you are “standing in the gap” or interceding on behalf of another person, nation, country, etc. I’ve got to say, I have not mastered these topics. It’s a really new process for me to try to truly hear God (and no I don’t mean audibly, but just more like feeling/sensing his leading), and I often feel I just hear my own thoughts, but it’s a process I think and I expect there will be a lot of growth and learning over the next couple months.

4. I scheduled my flight home! So I will actually be coming home - - March 27. Which essentially gives me 20 days until “the big day” (!) I’ve got to say I’m getting more and more excited every day about this whole marriage thing. James & I have been getting to talk semi-regularly and he has just been awesome & so supportive, it’s pretty amazing how he can still encourage and help me from halfway around the world. With the past couple days being somewhat heavy/overwhelming, he has woken up in the middle of the night to talk (time difference issues!) and has grounded me with solid advice for which I’m very thankful...

All right, I don’t want to overwhelm you too much! Pictures coming soon.

Love to all.

updates from the weekend...

Well, I haven't posted in a few days, but we've mostly had free time, a LOT of which we have just spent getting to know each other, talking lots, laughing lots, wandering the city a bit as well. We've spend lots of time enjoying all of the cultural differences - we have people here from England, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand... needless to say we've had tons to laugh about. From Kiwis calling hoodies "jumpers" to Stephanie (one of the girls on our trip) telling hilarious stories of growing up with "redneck" parents (her words) and once cutting her leg open as a child and her mom sealing it closed with super glue!

Yesterday, a few of us went to church at Urban Vineyard, the church that is hosting us for our school (all our classes and meals will be there from now on). It's a very small church, but everyone was SO excited for us to be there, and took a special time during the service to pray for our group which was very sweet. Some of my favorite things about the church - they have a row of sofas on the front row, and during the first two songs before the kids are released to children's church, they give them all little bells/drums/etc. to play and they all play along with the band. It's quite adorable.

Today we officially had our "first day of school". And true to form, we spent it mostly doing orientation-type things. We've been told that the amount of lectures that we'll hear during our 3 months here is equal to 30 years worth of sermons. For that reason, we aren't even required to go to church (we are encouraged to though), but they said sometimes it will be hard to pack in any more information at the end of the week!

They told us today that we'll hear next week what the outreach possibilities are (there will be 3 options), then we'll have a week to pray about it and we make our decisions during week 3. So, two weeks from now I will know where I'm going, which is so exciting. We are finding out even sooner than I expected, but I still wish we were finding out even sooner!

Good news - the weather's getting better! I'm still freezing most of the time (luckily we have tea every 10 minutes here, so I can keep warm that way) but there were a few hours today when it was comfortable actually. We are going out to eat tonight with our "small groups" - each is led by a staff member - so I'm pretty excited to eat somewhere in the city! Will post photos soon!

Tons of love!

Final Updated Address

SORRY! My real address is:

Chelsea Nielsen

c/o YWAM Auckland DTS

PO Box 68913

Newton,

Auckland

1145

New Zealand

They updated the address today!!!

If you happened to send anything already, they are going to call the post office and try to retrieve anything sent to the other PO Box.

First Photos!

Here are a few photos so you can see where I've been and who I'm here with. Hopefully now when I talk about people you'll have a better idea of who they are!

FOR ALL OF MY PHOTOS: http://picasaweb.google.com/chelsea.alanna.nielsen

Here is our room! (It's a mess - no furniture so our stuff just has to stay out!) I am sitting on my bed taking this photo, I have a single bed not a bunk.

This is the kitchen in the hostel that we can use. We've been eating here for all our meals the past few days but soon we will be eating at the church where we have classes.

This is the "dining room" where we've all been eating together. You can see that one of the windows is open (it's broken) ... so it's not only freezing but the birds also come in, eat crumbs off the floor and then leave. It's like Snow White.

Here is a view from the street across from our hostel. The city has HUGE hills everywhere as you can see.

This is our hostel. My room is on the 2nd floor.

Just a street view to give you an idea of what the city looks like

Stephanie (FL) & Elise (TX)

From the back: Sam (MN), Becca (VA), Amy (CA), Rachel (London), Lesley (TX)

Erin (duh!) and Johanna (Germany)

Everyone on their computers because this cafe gives an hour of free wireless when you buy anything!

settling in

wow, once everyone got here yesterday, things really started to pick up. 3 of my 4 roommates are here so far - Rachel from London, Lesley from Texas, and Becca from Virginia. They are all really nice and we get along very well.

I was feeling a little nervous yesterday just being thrown into this, and especially because Erin and I were the first to arrive and our rooms were freezing (we have space heaters, that weren't on yet), but being around Lesley yesterday was so uplifting. She is 35, and her twin sister Elise is here as well, and she is SO excited about being here. Like, I'm talking, she said she kept pinching herself on the plane ride over here because it is a dream come true for her (her words). She and her sister resigned from their jobs, packed up their apartment into storage, dropped everything and came here. This is the last year they would be eligible for a DTS (Discipleship Training School - what my program is called), because once you are over 35, you have to do a "Crossroads DTS" which is meant for people who are married with children, and neither of them are married yet, so they really wanted to do the regular DTS with us.

Anyway, being around her and her positivity yesterday was really a blessing and an answer to what I asked ya'll to pray for yesterday - that we would focus more on what we have instead of what we don't have. I can already feel myself being more excited and focused on what a great opportunity this is, and how much I know God will change us and reveal himself to us.

And I also got an answer to the second thing I asked ya'll to pray about - that we would start forming solid relationships with the other students. Eating lunch and dinner together yesterday with everyone, it was so obvious how well we all get along with each other. While everyone is really different, we all still mesh well together - the conversations were so fun - all bantering back and forth, laughing, being ourselves. It was so obvious that the Spirit was working among us, sowing peace and friendship already. So thank you for your prayers!

I am going to post later today with a couple pictures!

Love to all,

Chels

the eagle has landed

We touched down this morning (Sept. 23rd) at 545AM Auckland time (1:45PM on the 22nd Eastern time) - so, we are 16 hours ahead of you guys! The flight was actually really good - honestly, the 5 hour flight from DC to LA was worse than the 12 hour flight from LA to Auckland! Air New Zealand was super nice, comfortable, lots of food and drink service, not to mention we were exhausted and slept for about 9 hours!

Two of the YWAM staff, Ben and Josie, picked us up at the airport and brought us to the hostel ("backpackers") where we'll be living - I am in a room with 5 girls - it is VERY small. There is one outlet in our room, and there is one shower on our floor . . . . a floor that probably has 30 people on it? At least. It will be very very interesting in the mornings... and it will be a big challenge to not have all the space/clothes/amenities that I have become really used to. For instance - I never thought I'd be living in a hostel long-term. It has already hit me pretty hard how high my standards are compared to what you really need to live on. I know it will continue to be a challenge, but I think it's a really good lesson to learn.

One of the reasons they chose the hostel though is because it is near to a seedy part of town where you will lots of bars/gay bars/etc. and prostitutes (prostitution is legal in NZ), and the group from last year had a vision of really living in the middle of that place and being a light there, which is pretty cool.

Anyway, we don't have the best internet access in the world - we can use the internet but very limited access to skype (for bandwidth purposes), so I think the best way to contact me will be email. (chelsea.alanna.nielsen@gmail.com), or by snail mail if you feel so inclined.

Let me update the address I listed before- they have given us a new one:

Chelsea Nielsen

c/o YWAM Auckland DTS

PO Box 68373

Newton,

Auckland

1145

New Zealand

and if you have to send a package for any reason:

Chelsea Nielsen

c/o YWAM Auckland DTS

Tabernacle Office, Plaza Level,

441 Queen Street,

Auckland

1010

New Zealand

We have met most of the people on the trip - there will be 16 girls and 5 boys total. There are a lot of students here from the US! So we have little pieces of home.

Okay, well, I have limited time here, but I wanted to update you all!

PS - the weather is terrible! They have been having a freak weather pattern and it is freezing and rainy. Hopefully it will get better soon.

Please pray just that we would be focusing less and less on what we don't have here and more and more on what a great opportunity we're being given. And just for the first few days here, that we would start forming solid relationships with the other students here.

Love to you all.