Sydney or Bust

T-minus two day to lack of internet again. My time at YWAM auckland has been interesting. A little restoration, a little spiritual atacks, one good knock on the noggin (litterally, got a nice bump to prove it), and and couple of new found friends. All is well. So in two days I again head to the end of the pennisula. 2 weeks for Christmas there. And then its Sydney or bust. And at this point its a 50/50 shot, Sydney...or bust. The plane, ferry and visa are set. Now there are just the little details, like where to sleep for a week :-) - ours fell thru a couple days ago.
But I get to see my dear friend for a week on the other side of the world. I get to see the opera house I have oogled for so long I can't believe this is for real. I get to spend New Years Midnight on a ferry crossing cook straight (long story I'm sure I will tell my kids someday).
So much more to tell, and I can't explane any of it. So for now.
Soli Deo Gloria

1 red parrot fish, 1 three ft shark, and pics from NZ

After almost two months in the land of the Kiwis I finally got to go fishing this past weekend. A gang from nelson came to hang out (it was a blast) and so Tim took a group of about 20 of us fishing for real. It was soooo much fun! After 2 blue cod (what you primaraly catch here) and 1 one really cool parrot fish, my line got snagget, but it wasn't a snag. After much debate we figure out it wasn't a snag, then after MUCH battleing I hauled in a 3ft shark. He turned out to be the biggest catch of the day and probably the most fun I have had in years. I promise to post a pic as soon as I have it (Kristy took it with her camera and is emailing it to me.)
So here I am, Auckland. 2 weeks almost at Jesika's and I am again roaming the country side....sort of. I'll be up here for the next week. Mostly hanging out at YWAM bases, and seeking God, with a little tourism mixed in. Thru God's amaizing ways I am still hoping to get over to sydney for a week before I head home. With 2 weeks and holidays at Jesika's imbetween this trip and that one.
I'm here for a bit with real internet, so I will fill in more later. For now, enjoy the Pics I finally got uploaded. There strewn thruout the last month (start at the Oct. Archives.) Enjoy! P.S. the two pics here are just random ones. NZ loves there one way bridges, this was the best....wanna play chicken witha train??

Wild and crazy....mostly the weather

I'm online!! (shocking I know). Sorry for the lack of communication here guys. Life somewhere in the south pacific has been more then a little wild and crazy. We are 2 days from done with exploration of the south island. It has been fun, beautiful beyond words, painful (the physical kind), and soaking wet (it's been story weather in some form all except one gorgeouse blue sky day).
I can name off my favorite place(s) on earth now. but there only names.....so I'll wait till I can flash the GAZILION photos my poor camera has on it. I think I have tested it to the limit at this point.
Anyhoo. I am currently sitting in quite possibly the coolest hostel ever (I can say this with confidance due to my large experience with hostels. ha...hahahahahahahaha)
We are in Punakaiki, and Like everything here I am pretty sure I spelled that wrong due (but my just desperate attempt to look around me and find the spelling failed. sorry). This place is like camp. Only better. dorm style house things tucked in thick forest with streams, atomosphere up the wazo, cool decor, and bathrooms outside. We walked to the beach earlier. Big rocks, Huge waves, nuff said.
Today is a good day. It feels wierd to say that, but there have definatly been some ruff ones. Home sick is coming in waves (by waves I mean the Mac Truck that seems to hit me in the chest ever 4 day or so :-). And phisycal stuff has been a challange on alot of front, from sleeping, to sitting, to being able to walk up a path with out face planting 5 times because of my clumsy streak (apparently it thrives on the new zealand air down here).
Gotta run. With write more next week when I am once again not in a car for 4 hours + each day. Love you all more then I ever realized.
P.S. can every one sending me forwards PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP take me off your forward list for the next 2 months. It is really hard for me to get to my email here, and I don't have much time on. So I can't read them, and it is eating up my time to delete them all. THANK YOU. :-)

South Island exploration

Just a really quick update. Fighting for any internet time I have right now. I'm half way thru exploring the south island with Jesika. It has been a blast. Nugget point (and corner of the world with a lighthouse on it) was seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. And worth every ruff spot on this trip so far. I'm in Invacargal (and probably spelled in wrong) the very south end, and we head north tomorrow. with the next few days including things like a boat trip, sky diving, and way to much time in the car. But hey, I've driven on the wrong side of the road now...:-)
I will post photos when i have a real internet. bye bye :-

Photo1 - Nugget point



Photot2 - Milford Sound

Photo 3 - My crazy friend Jesika at the Moeraki Boulders

choosing life.....

I'm in one of those reflective modes. A little homesick, a little tired, a little contemplative. I am out at the end of the world (feels that way right now, signs of life in the bay get me all twitterpatted.) And I've been working on my novel...something that always gets my brain a going.
Anyway, so i've been thinking. Would you choose a better way of life if you knew a hard outcome, or would you choose an easyer road to try and stay safe. I have this feeling in my gut, the one that says I won't die of old age, and this belief in Jesus will cost me my life, literally. The feeling has been growing expadentially for the last couple of years. Whether it is my drama queen getting the best of me, or God preparing me I couldn't begin to tell you. (I would be really ok if it was my drama queen side by the way)
I was reading last night, my Bible I mean. And I was reading the end of John, where Jesus basicly tells Peter how he is going to die. Peter has the reaction I think most of of might. Upon seeing John following them he says to Jesus...'what about him??". Jesus looks at him and says (and this is me massivly paraphrasing here people) 'what do you care what I do with him? YOU follow me."
Wow.
Can you imagine being looked in the eye by Jesus and asked that? The verse got me thinking about my gut feeling. The one that scares the crap out of me, and yet have a peace about all at the same time. Would I ditch this 'following God where ever He leads' to avoid a cost that high? The good christian answer here is no. The reality answer is a couple of deep breath and prayer for strength if that day comes. In reality there are thousands who make that choice daily in any number of places all over the globe. It just feels huger for this girl from the burbs who's never even had a broken bone.
I don't want the picket fense, mudane living out of this life. But that as a true alternative....
so for now I will remember Cory Tenboon. When she told her father she couldn't handle what they all knew was coming. He asked her when do you buy the ticket for a trip. She said right before you take the trip of course. He said then don't worry about it until then. Sor for now I will be thankful that I don't have to truely make that choice now. Thankful that I am sitting in a quite bay of new zealand rediscovering what rest looks like.
But I still wonder what I will choose....
what would you choose?

tramping the driveway

Jesika wants to take me tramping. Even in Kiwi I don't think I'm in shape enough to hike up a mountain with a 30 pound pack. So today began the 'traning'.....Jesika's driveway (don't underestimate the word). I have the house to myself for three days while she is off working, so I figured this would be the perfect time to try it. I did it!!! Granted it took me 3+ x the amount of time it takes her (took me the better part of an hour)...and I hurt alllllll over. But still. Grinning like an idiot with an amaizing view was worth it. Tomorrow, the "path" to her parents house, around the bay. I have reason to beleive that unlike her 45+ degree drive way, this one doens't go to the top of the hill. And that gives me hope :-)
So I am here hanging out at the house...chilling...sorta. Truthfully I've felt like going insane. I'm stuck at the end of a peninsula, 3 hours from anywhere, feeling like I am visiting a friends house, not a foreign country. But I got to talk to my friend in OZ (australia) last night for quite a while, and we are close to the same time zone!!! She said what I had a sneeky suspicion of. Just rest. Just be. Wow, what a concept. My life for what feels like so long, when not revolving around work, has revolved about where I am going to sleep. Now suddenly it doesnt. I am here until probably the 11th. Then it looks like I get shown the South island locals style for a couple weeks. So all I do, is just be. Hang out , talk to God, until Jesika gets back (saturday), then help her with lots of chores.
When did resting get hard? When did NOT having to worry about the roof over my head, or money, or certain other things that go bumb in the night become the chalanging part?
It is beautiful here. In a cove, in the bay, with teal water and ducks that bark at me, and hills all around. And somewhere along the last week I feel like I forget how to talk to God. I'm suddenly remembering how good He is at getting our attention...and how many ways we distract ourselves. I am in New Zealand, and suddenly wondering why. (other then sharing the 747 with T.D. Jakes, yeah, that was cool, and a story :-). But I gave these three months to God. Litterally for what ever He wanted to do. So even if that means sitting at the end of a cove on a bay....
I just don't wanna go home the same.

P.S. This is her driveway, looking across at it

Ta da...

36 hours of travel time, 3-4 hours sleep, 3 planes (4 if you count the 'maintance issues had to switch at the last second' one), 3 bus's, 1 ferry, and one very nice granny waiting on the other end. Nuff said. I did however get a personal tour of the 747 at 4 am by a very nice stewardess I ran into (litterally). That was Grand.

Its beautiful here....I'll try and expound on that more later, when I have more time online.

Thank you Annabell for the travel journal idea. I seriously don't know what I would be doing with out it. And Thanks Isaac, for getting me the travel journal at the last minute, its perfect.

yep. nuff said

...Go

So, I leave in...ok, it is way to late to actually calculate that...its under twenty four. I figured this would be the last chance to do this on US soil for a while, so I'd take the opportunty.
It finally hit this evening. For all the talk and planning, the big whammy of oh my gosh I'm really doing this set in about an hour ago. After 2 days of good byes (including to my old beautiful car, which has been the only consistant thing in my life this past year +) I am really on my way. In alot of way it has been a ruff week. Everything for the trip has gone sooooo smoothly it has been genuinly unbelievable. But some other stuff....yeah, thats been not so cool. Turns out you really can't just sneak out of the country for three months to do what ever God leads you....with out getting a little attacked for it. So maybee a little black and blue, but excited, and full steam ahead. I know this trip is huge. Not just for the time away or how fast in came together, but for all I feel like God has in store. To God alone be the glory. Soli Deo Gloria.
P.S. I will try to write more when it isn't midnight and more of my braincells are awake :-)

Ready...Set..

Ok, so get this. There will be 2 months, from the time this trip became a thought, to the time I leave the ground in the big plane. The first two weeks was just thinking and testing doors. The real pursuite started at about the two week point. By two weeks before I leave...everything was totally set. Do you get this? God pulled together a 3 month international trip...in under a month!!! The money, the car, the contacts, everything. Holy Cow!
I leave in 9 days. This shouldn't be possible, all the books say so. God has been reminding me of something I told a friend some years back. As I was talking about a possible big move in my life, he kept telling me how that wasn't possilbe. I needed more time to plan, look for housing, ect. I told him, 'the really annoying thing about God, is that when he wants to do something, He doesn't obey the rules, He just does it.'
I feel like I won an oscar. I have this whole list of people I want to thank. The amaizing friends and family in my life that over the last year, and expecially now, have litterally become God's hands and feet in my life. I had a melt down a couple of weeks ago. bad pizza mixed with bad dreams mixed with a really ruff couple of weeks, and I just melted. Two very amaizing friends not only saw me thru it, but to my amaizement, bought me a massage to help me calm down and reset.
How do you even begin to say thankyou. I feel like there are some hard things coming down the pipeline in my life. I don't know a better way of putting that. There are just things I feel like are in my future... that might not be of the white picket fence variety. But I look at this time in my life, and I am so amaized. First, at this wonderouse God, who looked at me, and believed me worth His effort (and trust me...the guy has had to put in alot of effort). And secondly, and the amaizing people He has placed around me. It sounds corney, I know that. But I really have been wondering....How do you even begin to say thank you.

so long, fare well....

So in honor of leaving the state I feel like I haven't even been in very long....a tribute to my favorites. The moments, and places (some of the people shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) that I love so much in the fair Washington. (in random order...and to be added onto as I think of it.

Best water sport - 3 way Tie - Midnight canoe ride with Stacy and Isaac - jumping in the lake in jeans - getting tipped in the canoe on my b-day
Best food - 7 corndogs, and two orange julius', with the only friend crazy enough to. (Newport bay comes in second)
Best view - Roof of the Edmonds library
Best weather pattern - Fog all the way (rain, the downpour kind, is second)
Best ferry ride - The first one. Dressed to the nines for an interview (feeling like an idiot) and talking to a good friend on the phone for company
Best Festival - Lavender with Annabell, complete with bee sting in the bum
Best locals spot - Tie- Ivars on lake union - monks at St. Marks
Best place to live - Anywhere but my car (I will laugh at this in a couple years....really)
Most skilled move - locking my keys in the car 4 times in the first 3 months (and learning how to break into the old girl with a coat hanger....it's harder then you think)
Best friends - The gang. You know who you are. Thanks for the grins and giggles, and more memories that I can list here
Best gift - getting to baby sit Willies dejembe (even if it got limited us)

Exit stage left

So I'm leaving town. This all feels so crazy. Since I feel like I just got here. I moved to Washington almost a year and a half ago. God said jump and I said where. To explain my life since then would be almost laughable. I can say genuinely it has brought some of the greatest joys in my life, and some pretty big lessons. But more then all of it, it has taught me what a wondrous God I serve.
So now...I'm going to new Zealand. I leave in about 5 weeks, and don't come back till January. What happens after that to this vagabond extraordinar is fair game. I've only left the country a couple times. 1 if you discount numerous trips to Canada. and lets face it. 1 week in Peru 10 years ago doesn't really compete here. On the surface this has all the makings of an amazing sight seeing adventure. Thru a set of unreal circumstances (including loosing a job, having no other commitments, and new found friend in NZ) The doors are open and away I go. But my gut (and apparently quite a few other peoples) tells me this isn't just a holiday. That God is up to something major, and this is me, along for the ride. At a work even one of the my last days, I found a toe ring, with foot prints. As soon as I saw it I knew what it meant, for me, it meant follower of Christ. I chose to follow God this far. Thru all of the wonder, craziness, and hardship. And the ring is a simple reminder that I will continue to. I know what your thinking, 'like it is hard to follow God to New Zealand'. And I soooo agree. But there are so many things tied into this. The money alone has been a step of faith, and amazing, all at the same time. (the life of a vagabond with your life in your cars...means you really shouldn't have enough money to do this, in two weeks!) So here I go, upside and all around His.