So after the weekend on the west coast we had an amazing week in Rakautara which is just north of Kaikoura and basically is a stop along the railroad line. We stayed in a building beside a mountain with the railroad on the other side....only a 5 minute walk from the beach! We had a great time listening to teaching from George Ehau, a Maori Christian who taught us the meanings of some maori words and also talked about missionaries from a different perspective. It was our outreach leader Laura's birthday so we decorated outside and had a BBQ pirate party.
However the best part of our time at Rakautara was seeing orca whales from the beach right after breakfast one day! We also saw dolphins and seals at the same time....so for a biology geek like me, cloud nine was reached :)
On our way back to the base we stopped and had lunch with a Christian group doing a university semester called Creation Care. It's associated with Christian universities in the United States and Canada mainly and the students do a short outreach time in Samoa and then do testing and have university lectures during the week. Plus they eat amazing food....I think there was apple in the tuna salad!
Back on base we've had a week of preparing for outreach. Watched some videos about the Father's Heart by Louie Giglio which I would really recommend watching. Also wrote my last journal entry and book report. Yaay! We had a day to pick up the last minute things before we leave for Bali and have been packing things up to go into storage.
The big focus for the week was Angels and Mortals and the Love Feast. What that means is that each person on base gets to be a secret angel for someone and is a mortal to the person who is their angel. The idea is to try and secretly bless your mortal each day of the week. There was everything from treasure hunts, to chocolate gifts, songs at dinner, a bunkbed castle, skits, pancake breakfasts, lovely picnics, and dinner escorts as well as a pet hedgehog! So great to see everyone being blessed by those around them. We ended the week with the Love Feast which is a fancy dinner that we all got dressed up for and guessed/revealed our angelic natures. To follow up the love feast our team was commissioned which means that the staff all prayed for us and got ready to send us on our outreach.
We leave in less than 12 hours for Bali and it doesn't really seem real at all. Anyway I have a few more things to try and get done before we go so I'll say Merry Christmas and I'll miss seeing all of you and snow. Thanks so much for all your comments, encouragements, thoughts and prayers.
I'll post my itinerary and then you'll hear from me next in 2010!
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