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.