welcoming committee

sister, me and laren
shelly, emily, me, and devan
dad, anne, me, christian and chasie (mom was there too, but just taking the picture, thanks momma)

im back in wisconsin.

Coromandel

on the coromandel coast :)
Me, Katie, Claire, Steff, and Justine in front of the huge L&P bottle. yum!
me, Claire, Steff, Justine, & Katie just being silly.
attempting a jumping picture...
beautiful west coastline of the coromandel
us in front of a cloudy view that cleared later

Saturday we attempted to go to Cathedral Cove and hot water beach...that was an unsuccessful trip because the roads were closed. All the rain washed some areas out. But we still had a GREAT time- I love road trips.

6 days and counting...

One day less than a week until in WI

Last week was Ministry week! I stayed with awesome Lennox family (as shown: Me, James, Lynette, Stu, and Olivia) They absolutely made the week. Later I'll put up a picture of the hat and matching mittens Lynette made me that are so beautiful! The week was at Te Awamutu Baptist Church in Te Awamutu and we spent the week running programs, visiting retirement homes, and volunteering etc. I had a great team as well.

Other thoughts:

Wow time flies. It seems like yesterday that I arrived in Auckland New Zealand. This past year has been amazing, so so so wonderful. God has used Capernwray, the staff, these opportunities, and this environment to change my heart. If feels like normal home life here... I feel normal here-so odd. I guess it just goes to show the saying "home is where the heart is" is true. My heart is God's and therefore where ever I go I am at home with Him. (That sounds a bit confusing, but it made sense in my head )

Anywho. I am excited to go back to Wisconsin, I'm ready :) Yep. I love you all, thanks for following my blog!

Beautiful rainbow

Taken at the batch in Waiuku.

"God said, “This is the sign of the promise I am giving to you and every living being that is with you for generations to come. I will put my rainbow in the clouds to be a sign of my promise to the earth. Whenever I form clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in the clouds."

Genesis 9:12-14

Bit of a rough day

Today Andrew left New Zealand to go to Cananda. I am sad. My heart aches and I cried heaps. Here's the thing though. Prayer is powerful. Our God is powerful, I should say. The peace from God that I have about everything is amazing. The joy i have from my heavenly Father is so great. Right now i know with all my heart that as long as I am living for Christ and his will, all is good. Not easy all the time, or ever I guess, we arent promised that, but just living for him. Phew. Soon it will be my turn to travel back to north america. Can't wait to share all I've learnt. peace.

great weekend

I just had a GREAT weekend. Up in Waiuku with Andrew, his mom and James at the batch(more pictures to come when they get emailed to me). Chill weekend. Played some golf, cooked some food, read my Bible, sat in the sunshine, went to a lighthouse, had a free photoshoot, talked talked talked, watched a movie, enjoyed life, I'm all smiles. God's so good and heres the thing-I've just got to trust Him with EVERYTHING. yep. Thats the dealio. peace.

Friends Zakk and Rachel in the kitchen.
Beautiful sunset view from outside the back kitchen door.
Me after a bike ride into town, great hair aye?haha

Just some picture updates. 40 days.

"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by his Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:5

Sister

(Us in New Zealand)
(Us in Winona)
I miss you sister. I love you.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1Peter 1:3-9

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31

But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always. Hosea 12:6

Hanging around

(oldie but a good memory-Sumner beach, Christchurch 2009)
Just hanging around here in NZ...actually I'm really busy. Balancing my time between the kitchen, peers, and Andrew. And just me and God time of course, but its sad how easily that gets pushed aside. Why is that? A bit of a stuggle I'd say. 47 days in counting. It's going to be hard going home.

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY!

(Queenstown)
(Routeburn Track)
(Homer Spit, AK)
(Last Mother's Day)
I have the best mom ever.

I love you mom, and I know how much you love me...

Thank you : )

All your hard work and patience really means a lot to me.

love, Elizabeth

Ephesians 5

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.

Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Ephesians 5:1-21...

What a great passage. This morning I woke up and thats the first thing I thought of. Cool aye? I am living life each day for Him. Its great here. The students are awesome, the staff are amazing and God's love is seen all around me. I'm going to miss this community so much. Thank you God for this opportunity to come to New Zealand. Only 56 days left.

Prayer

Matthew 6:25-34**

These last few days have been a little rough. New Zealand is still amazing but I am being bombarded with all these thoughts and worries about home and all the things with the future-when I really feel like I should just be here when I'm here, you know?(When am I going to get the chance to be at a Bible school in NZ again?)

James 4:13-15

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say,'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"

Psalm 37:3-8, 23-26

" Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil...If the Lord delights in a man's way he makes his steps firm; though he stumble he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed."

Galatians 2:20

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The live I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

1 John 3:16-24

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. Ad we ought to lay down out lives for our brothers .If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set out hears at rest in his presence whenever our hears condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because  we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command; to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and hte God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

Philippians 4:4-9

" Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving , present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put into practice. and the God of peace will be with you."

**Matthew 6:25-34

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I love God with all my heart, I just need to trust him with all my heart too.

I've been inspired

Lemon custard in meringue cups
Them again with the sunflowers i bought :)
Morgan at work!
Bible study in the park in Cambridge. (with the farmers market in the background)
Yesterday I hung out with Beth. She's awesome :) We talked talked talked and baked an amazing lemon dessert. She also shared with me some of the baking blog sites that she has found with wonderful recipes and beautiful photos to match, which resulted in my inspiration to go out and get some more batteries and actually use my camera. So today I went to the park to work on my Bible Study(1 John 3:1-6) and then visited Morgan at her work. On my way back to the car I stopped at the farmers market and picked up some sunflowers and then took pictures. Now they are on here! Another thing-Beth and Joe are keeping a really cool blog with amazing photography (they are taking the pictures and blogging to document their time here and also get better with the camera...) So for the time being I'm on a actually blog kick. (but we shall see how long this lasts) 

Tonight we are having a mediterranean/ greek themed meal and I'm working with a few other students to make it. (Pitas with chicken, hummus, tzisiki, eggplant and courgette thing, and greek feta salad+ caramel slice for dessert) Theeeen Morgan and I are getting dressed up and going to Hamilton to hang out...hopefully some pictures to come. 70 days in counting.

The TOP if Mount Doom!!
On the way up Mt. Doom...itwas ruff. We started climbing at 3 AM and got to the top by 6ish.
My ministry week family. They are awesome. Really really really really fun :)

Last Term

Monday is the beginning of my last Term here in New Zealand at Capernwray Bible school. So weird to think about! I've been here for about 9 months. I come home in 77 days. Wow. I've learned so much and really made my faith my own and my relationship with Jesus Christ is really the most important thing in my life now. (Or at least I'm working towards that. Its a long hard process out of the ways of the world I was wrapped up in before). I can't wait to see everyone. 

"For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me." Psalm 31:3

Quick update

woah almost a month has gone by since my last one...
right now I am in the middle of 2 week break, but unlike my last one in October I am just hanging around Cambridge area and the Lodge on lake karapiro. It's fall, but not many trees drop their leaves here. Tonight is the first night of Xposure (a camp for 14-18 yr olds that Andrew is leading, and im cooking) but tomorrow i have to leave for the day to help out with a wedding! I'm really excited.
Oh yea! and last thursday night I left here at 11:30 pm and Andrew and I drove 3 hours to Mt. Doom (you know from Lord of the Rings :) ) and started hiking at 3am ish! we got to the top just in time for the AMAZING sunrise-like a big fire in the sky and we could see for miles and miles. On our way up it was a bit foggy then we broke through the clouds and we walked the rest of the night/morning in the light of a big full moon. (lots of stars out too) talk about gorgeous, probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, also one of the hardest things I have ever done, but you dont really remember that part of it.
Monday and tuesday I might be spending with my billets from this past ministry week. They are amazing people! We stayed up most nights and talked till pretty late and just you can really see how much they trust God. Also they have 5 kids with one on the way...all 6 and under!!!It reminded me of my cousins :). The kids were a blast and real cute.
After break is done I will be going back to Monavale and I got asked to intern in the kitchen!! I am really really really pumped for that. baking and cooking are kinda my thing. Plus the chef there is really cool and I just know I am going to learn alot. I'll still be going to lectures and have homework and stuff, but with a different dynamic added.
Keep me in your prayers, I really miss home...only about 80 days left.
Keep reading 1 John..the more you read it the more God reveals things to you, open up yourself to Him.
(>>Andrew is coming to visit around the time I get home...hope you all are excited to meet him :) he says hi.)

Random Pictures! Horay

At Andrew's beach house in Waiuku(near Auckland) Andrew, Jochem, Gloria, Talia, Steph, Russ, and Me and Nicole in the front. 
Stephanie and I when she came to visit(Steph was my roommate at University last year)
(Gloria and I on Pirate themed graduation night. She was Tinker Bell...I miss that girl!)
(My Capernwray family last semester:Bottom row-Rachel, Kestral, Me, Leah, Lynette and the kids. Top row-Jon, Patrick, Kevin, Levi, and Leijf 
(Christmas Eve heres the family in Queenstown at a really cute local restaurant: Dad, Mom, Chase, Christian, Me, and Anne)
(sister Anne and I in Rotorua)
(Mom and Dad on the Routeburn track in the Milfred sound area in the tip of the south island)
(In New Zealand traveling with my family also on the Routeburn track)
(In Australia at the famous Bondi Beach)
(andrews mom, Andrew and me when we went golfing-which was my first time ever!This was right after Australia when I stayed at their beach house for a couple of days)
Me and morgan at her work( with a ninja turtle hehe)

Well it has been quite a while since my last update..sorry about that. I have 10 days left of this ABS, WOW time flew. We have done some amazing things this time and more than I did when I was in it in October. Things like surfing in Raglan and a 2 day sea kayaking trip around Rotorua. The weather has been gorgeous and hot. Signs of autmn are coming tho! (I missed the bright yellow maple trees at home!) It seems weird to think I've been thru winter, spring, and summer and fall is just around the corner...8 months here! I think its around 124 days til I go home (July 2) I'm still learning a lot from God. The most recent thing that keeps coming up is how important it is to be living in Christ's love. (I've been reading 1 John a lot)So everything I do and say and think should go through the "love filter", just Jesus standard. Another thing is how my relationship with God feeds into or impacts all my other relationships.

Soon we leave on a 4 day tramp...which means hike in NZ terms
Heres some other NZ lingo that I've gotten into the habit of saying:
keen
rubbish
sweet-az
eh
she'll be alright
no worries

Alright heres a good verse to memorize, I'll leave you with that
1John 3:18 "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with action and in truth"

Another Adventure

Another Adventure Bible School 6 week program starts today, except this time I am an intern! I'm a little nervous-excited for it all to begin. There are going to be alot of awesome things for this one and I will try to post up more pictures. My latest adventure is re-learning how to drive stick shift and doing that in New Zealand is great :) Keep the staff here and all the new students coming in your prayers. I love NZ!

At the Lodge

dear friends and family,
today was my second day on the job :) I got asked to be an intern here at ABS again! The 6 week program starts up on Feb. 2 so this week is all prep work. I will be pre-baking alot with another staff member named Cloudy. The weather has been so hot here althogh right now there is a thunder storm-its wonderful! and the rain is needed. My Australian adventures finished up with almost a week back in Waiuku, NZ with Andrew's mom, Trish, and her boyfriend James and Andrew came up for the weekend. They are such lovely people! We went golfing and out dancing and just had a really wonder ful time. And now I am back here and to be honest I feel a bit at home :). Oh! ok so keep Sarah, andrews sister who is in Haiti, in your prayers and check out her website: olivetreeprojects.com

some pics

Me, Andrew, Jen, and Jesse playing in some fountians


Sydney Opera House


view of Darling Harbor in Sydney


just a funny picture jumping off the steps in front of the Sydney Opera House

**all pictures thanks to Jesse, becasue my cameras batteries died...

:)

Back in Sydney after a few days of traveling mostly on the coast including Newcastle, Hornsby, Cronulla, and Richmond(but that was inland). I'm on my own for the next few days, Andrew left yesterday :(. A great surprise tho is that I found out another student from Capernwray is in Sydney these next few days too...God provides a way for me not to be alone, thank You. So these next days I plan to spend a lot of time in the word, also reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan(thanks to my friend Shelly...what a great Christmas present and its amazing so far and I only just finished chapter 3!), I'll be taking day trips out of the city to surrounding areas because I got a train/bus/ferry pass for the week, and well lately I've been reminded that I really need to be living with everything I am for God and to glorify him. I must confess that before recently I forgot for a while how important that is. " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Matthew 22:37-40.

ps. Please pray for Andrew's sister Sarah, who is in Haiti right now. She has an orphanage/ midwifery place there. She is ok from the earthquake and is helping now with all the damage. Just pray for Sarah and Haiti in general. Thanks

AUSTRALIA

I'm in Australia and man is it hot here!! But so beautiful and wonderful. The first 2 days i spent in Sydney and yesterday took a train up north to Newcastle. Beaches, Cafes, shops and just meeting new people is awesome. I'll try and keep you posted.love, elizabeth

3 weeks...

The last 3 weeks have been good with the family. We have seen amazing landscapes and done some crazy adventures. One of which was a 3 day trek in the Milfred Sound=wow! and the boys went bungee jumping some other day. We have been through a lot of cute little towns and seen mountains and beaches and fiords and rolling hills, all part of what makes NZ great and a total display of God's handiwork. Today is the last full day we have here and then the family is back home and I am off to Australia. Wish me luck :)