Peace and trust...

Today is my first day of school....and I even had butterflies last night before I went to bed.  It's kind of strange to be back in the student spot after being on the other side as a teacher.  We got our manuals for DTS last night and I am really excited to see what God has in store for me and everyone else here on the base over the next 6 months.

Before I talk about life on the base here's a quick update from the last leg of my travels here:

Mom and I enjoyed our last night together in Picton and went out for dinner at a place called Barn which had delicious chicken breast stuffed with walnuts and brie on stir fried veggies which was delicious.  We finished up the night soaking in the spa (hot tub) overlooking the ferries and bay.  Next morning we wandered around Picton a bit more and found a jewellry store that helped us clean all the tarnish off our silver from wearing our rings and necklaces in Hanmer Springs (don't do it!!).  Then we had delicous pies and my first Afghan biscuit from the dutch Bakerij before the lady from our hostel dropped me off at the train station and mom off at the ferry.

The train ride was really nice and I had a really good chat with the kiwi girl sitting next to me.  It's so challenging for me to be so open with my faith because it comes up all the time now that I am going on DTS.  We talked about a lot of things on the 5 hour train ride and I just hope that I said the right things....

My DTS leader, Jenny, picked me up from the train and drove me to the base where I'm starting to get to know all the people I'll be living and being around for the next 3 months.  The girls in the Backpacker and Earthcare DTS are living in the High St. House just a 5 minute walk from the base.  There are 20 of us sharing 3 bathrooms (one is split up into tub and shower separate from the toilet) so it is definitely going to be a change from my two bedroom place with Erin.  My room has a bunk bed and a single bed in it, but I ended up on the top bunk since I was the last one here.  Luckily I've been practicing my bunk climbing over the past month!

Yesterday we went to church at the Baptist church and then went for delicious hot chocolate at a nearby cafe.  In the afternoon we relaxed around the house because it was hailing and windy outside (hopefully warming up soon...).  Later before dinner (or tea here) we had a welcoming thing where they introduced all the DTS leaders and students and then came the coolest part of the day.  Some Christian Maori people (the indiginous..spelling?!...people here in New Zealand) sang and prayed for us in the Maori language and then the men and boys did a haka based on Ephesians 6.  If you have never seen a haka before check it out on Youtube-the All Blacks rugby team do one at the beginning of all their games.  It was awesome to see it so close up!

This morning I got up at 5:30 to go for a run before we got our day going with one of the other girls....pretty early for me I know, but it was actually not as bad as I had thought.  The unfortunate thing is that I am having more Ipod issues.....yesterday I plugged my Ipod into one of the other girl's computers who has Linux instead of Windows and apparently it has converted all my music files into a format that my Ipod doesn't recognize so when I went to listen to it this morning it told me there was no music on it....even though there is still only a little space left on it....I tried using other people's computers to find the files and convert them back, but I haven't had any luck yet so please pray for this!!!  For some reason I am not freaking out which is good and I'm trying to trust that I will be able to find it all again....

For those of you who want to send me mail (do it!) here is my address until the middle of  December when we leave for outreach:

Attn: Julie Forster

YWAM Oxford
PO Box 47
Oxford, North Canterbury 7443
New Zealand