Skates, Luggage, Irish.....and so forth.

I finally have collected all my luggage! My board bag and my clothes are all here! I'm so very excited to have everything that I wanted to have... Including jackets because it isn't especially warm here during the winter season. Anyways that's very exciting but not exactly what I'm blogging about.

The school just started on monday and we haven't had any real lectures yet just administrative stuff and rules and regulations and all the stuff you have to go through. We had our first School thing on Sunday night and it was a welcome dinner and everyone involved with our YWAM base was there so we got to meet everyone working behind the scenes it was pretty cool. We had a New Zealand special meal... mutton. Which is sheep and it was delicious, and then there was this awesome dessert, it pretty much sums up all the meals we have had so far. The food has been delicious, and if I keep eating like this I'm gonna be huge in a few months... hopefully I'll just lose all that weight again on outreach. Also sunday night was our first worship session and it was amazing. We may not have had the most practiced worship band and their was a few hitches in the music and Scotty is playing drums right now, and he hasn't in so long but actually sounds pretty dece, but it was still fantastic. Everyone was just concentrating on Worshipping the Lord and not about who was around them and the Holy Spirit filled that place.

Now that our real schedule is starting tomorrow I think we will have a lot less free time, but since we have had so much free time since we got here we have been taking those opportunities to hit the skatepark. Now that I have my skate it's gonna be even sweeter! We are getting to know a lot of the local kids pretty well. Some of them are so sick at skateboarding it's awesome. These two kids that are always there one is named Andre, and one is named Irish (Yes that is his real name) are really good at skateboarding and they are pretty young probably like 15 and 12 or something like that. They played a game of SKATE with a guy from our DTS named Skyler and it was really cool to watch them doing some really cool tricks. Getting to know the locals is cool because we could get a chance to do some evangelism with them and spread the good news. Pretty cool.

Finally everyone arrived today as well and it was really cool meeting with everyone else and everyone just fitting in right away and I'm looking forward to get to know everyone here in a fantastic strong relationship. It's only been 4 nights and these people are super cool. I'm also getting pretty good at ping pong, I'll be a legend by the time I get back. Tomorrow we get to hear everyones testimonies and share our own. I'm really excited to learn so much more about everyone through that. Getting so stoked for that and real lectures starting up on thursday as well! Can't wait to get to know God so I can make him known.

Love from NZ

Btack

Airplanes and Sheep

After the bus ride we hung out a couple days in Van City, and it was a great time. It was a really good way to take a break in between 15 hours of bus ride and 2 days of planes.

The planes started out pretty good and it was super exciting taking off from Vancouver to be on my first trip over seas. We took off from Vancouver at like 7 on Wednesday June 22nd arrived in LA around 11 and left for Fiji around 130,  landed in Fiji at 540 On friday the 24th (that's right we skipped June 23). From Fiji we left at about 830 in the morning then went to Auckland landed at about 1130, and that is the first time we had to grab our luggage since Vancouver. So we picked up Scotty's big clothes luggage bag right away and then started waiting for my luggage and both our board bags... and then we kept waiting... and then a little more waiting... and then it clicked. They were not there. So we filed a report and gave them the contact number for our base and the address and all that and now were just waiting on that stuff. So we left with our carry ons and Scotty's luggage flew out of Auckland at 3 and arrived in Christchurch around 400. We got an awesome welcoming from a few of the other students who had flown in that day and the staff that came and picked us up and things were instantly good to go, everyone clicked right away it seemed. It was then an hour drive to Oxford and by the time we got to Oxford it was dark out... and that's when I realized we were in winter again, from Summer Solstice to the sun setting at 530. Typical.

Anyways that was our travel itinerary, now a bit about the base. The room I'm staying in has bunk beds and there is 6 of us staying in the room. That should make for a gong show of epic proportions. The student lounge is downstairs and that consists of a bunch of couches and a ping pong table lots of chill time there probably to come. The other building has our classroom and our dining hall. In the classroom there is like 6 acoustic guitars all with a broken G string and a drum set and a bass, maybe I'll learn some music skillz while I'm here. Behind the main building there is a building called "The Ghetto" it's got a weight room/library and the old bunks. Behind that building there is "The Field of Dreams" and this field is epic. It's got a trampoline, a volleyball net, a mini half-pipe for skating and a sweet open space. That will be unreal. For those of you who have been to SABC they have the really awesome free hot chocolate things hear as well and I'm lovin' that.

We just watched "That's it That's All" which is the best snowboarding movie ever and if you haven't seen it then you need to. Anyways it was just a great time getting to know the bros since only one of the girls are here so far. Gets me stoked to be here. I can't wait to see what God does with me and these guys  and everybody else when the DTS starts on sunday.

Love from NZ

Btack

How I Found Myself Here

As another day begins me and Scotty embark on the journey of our lives thus far, and perhaps the coolest one we’ll ever have. I personally am so thankful for the way things turned out in my life to this day. As the date approached for my departure and all the goodbyes began I started to realize just how loved I am. I couldn’t believe how encouraging all of the goodbyes and the see you laters really were. Everyone from my lacrosse team to my friends and my family and my church family were amazing in the encouraging words and I have seen so much more love than I’ve shown in the past few weeks. I already knew I’d miss everyone and now I know you will all miss me, so thank you so much for all your love! I can’t wait to pay it forward and I can’t tell you how much it impacted me.

Today we are on a 15 hour greyhound ride from Calgary to Vancouver and for those of you who don’t know my story this is how I got to this point, sitting in this seat with this friend.

I guess if we want to go all the way back in the past briefly I first accepted Christ into my heart in kids church. It never really meant much at that point because I didn’t really know what it meant and I didn’t really feel any different. Then life went on until high school and the Mexico trip in grade 10 I really felt the presence of God and that’s when I accepted him in my life again, but this time really meant it. When I got home from the trip however life just continued on the same course it had been on, just living life as a high school kid no different than anyone else. There was spiritual highs on SABC (Southern Alberta Bible Camp) youth trips and Mexico trips where we went to build houses for people who desperately needed it. Amazing how by serving other people you get more fulfillment then you do serving yourself, something that I learned very quick in Mexico but never held it for very long. Near the end of high school I started leading a great bunch of kids in youth church that were in grade 6 at the time, I still lead them now and they are just finishing off grade 9, It’s amazing how much they have grown already. Through leading a bunch of rowdy youth kids my faith was challenged to grow through having to teach about God and about the way He loves and the way we need to reflect that love in everything we do. When I started leading youth that’s when my faith slowly moved from one or two days a week to being challenged to live everyday for God. It hasn’t been an easy journey and it sure isn’t done yet but since then my faith has grown much faster than before and right now it’s about as solid as it’s ever been and I couldn’t be happier.... well at least not that I know of, but I can’t wait to be pleasantly surprised. 

I’ve run into some challenges along the way as well. Probably the longest lasting and most difficult challenge so far has been the challenge to try and bring my friends back to the light after they had lost their way. Naturally after high school a lot of my friends got involved a lot more in partying and drinking and  drugs, I know it happens right? Well I didn’t want to see my friends go down that path of constant yearning for that living in the moment life. After a while my friends every sunday at church went down to 2 or 3 friends every sunday, before that on a good sunday I probably had 10 or 15. Anyways seeing the drastic change and the desire for the physical desires had started to wear on me and all I could do was keep loving on my friends every single day, and I always did love them and never fell far out of friendship with them and I’m so thankful all my friends still loved me as well. Anyways eventually most of them decided that they were done with all that and started thinking about mistakes they were making and questioning what they were living for and a huge revival happened and now one of them is with me on this trip and mostly everyone else is praying for me back at home. I thank God all the time for their hearts.

Well that is a brief version of where I have been now for when I decided to go to YWAM Oxford instead of another year at general studies school.

I will never forget one night in Palms Springs, California. I was sitting on a longboard with a dear friend and that was when the decision was made that I wasn’t gonna go back to school for that year and I was gonna save up to go somewhere... she asked if I was gonna go back to school next year and I said no I don’t think I will. I didn’t know where yet but I knew it was gonna be somewhere. I had no direction in life and I was really struggling with that, I wanted to go do something to learn about myself and I thought it would be nice to help other people as well. I loved school and I made a lot of really awesome friends there whom I still hang out with a year later, but I needed to find a purpose, mine wasn’t there. At least not yet it may be when I come back home who knows. It was about a month later I believe some time in August when I heard about the Snowboarders DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Oxford, New Zealand I was hooked. Initially the snowboarding drew me in but God knew my passions. It wasn’t long before my intentions switched solely from having a good time to serving God, that being said I’m still very excited to have fun. My fun won’t just be on the hills, it will be in the lectures, during worship and during anything we may be doing on base, and of course the outreach.

Soon after I decided to go to YWAM God moved something in Scott’s heart and then I had someone to go with, amazing how that worked out. He has his own stories to tell as well.

The next 10 months were devoted to working and saving up and this trip was always on the horizon of my thoughts and I finally had something to look forward to that I knew was what I was supposed to be working towards. It made all the days at work in the cold for winter seem a lot shorter because I knew what I was working towards. I got to know my friends better and met more lovely people and life kept keeping on. It was awesome. A few months ago a young adults home group started and I was getting support from a lot of people I have learned from and will continue to learn from. It kinda sucked getting to know so many people and then leaving right away, but I know they will be there with open arms when I return, they have meant so much to me.

I’m so excited for what God has for me and I can’t wait to see where he takes me in outreach and what he will have me do. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support and stay tuned for the next post on what I’ve done so far.