Stolen Idea from Ryan

As you may or may not have noticed, I've come back to my original blog design. Though it was causing a few problems for me before, I've decided to let it have another chance.

So I hope you enjoy it (I know Wanita does).

But the point of this entry is not to boast about my sweet template modificationalizing skills...I am aware that several people do read my blog, but I get very little feedback to find out exactly who.

So for curiosities sake, if you're reading this entry, TELL ME YOU READ THIS by clicking on "comments" at the end of this entry. I say this mostly to the friends and family members back home who probably don't have any clue that they could ever leave a comment on here!

You don't have to leave any elaborately thought-out writings in there, just let me know if you read this. I'll always keep writing, but my curiosity (and partial jealousy due to Ryan's countless comments on his blog) is getting the best of me.

See that little thing that says "Comments" right below this sentence? Click it! Talk to me, people!!!

A Little Lighter...

I feel rather wonderful tonight.

I sat at home this afternoon, being lazy and trying to get some rest in before a long haul of reading ahead of me. Then I got a text from Katrina asking if I'd do PowerPoint/Sound tonight for her because she was asked to sing.

In a bit of a fizzy mood, I said "Ok" (again, not sticking up for myself and saying "no") and went to church when I was supposed to have the night off. It's part of this new plan where I go to all 3 churches that I've plugged myself into completely equally so I'm not showing favourites and not having people assume that I do things a certain way because of any denominational influence in town.

Anyways, the point is, I wasn't supposed to go to TCC tonight coz I went last week - and in order to keep it even, I have to skip every other week. So I went, and I was in a bit of a scruffy mood most of the night.

But even though I spent the entirety of the sermon playing spider solitaire on the computer (with the proper powerpoint screen paused on the wall), I was listening quite intently to John's sermon. He talked about submission and how the bottom line is that we are not going to live the way God wants us to unless we submit.

That's been a prevailing theme in my life over the past year and a half or so.

Also, this morning at the Prezzy church, another John (Karl wasn't there so a man from the church preached) talked about the kinds of love that are in the world, and how we should love. It wasn't necessarily anything new, but it was a great refresher that really hit home to me with how I've been feeling the past couple of days.

Anyways, when I got home, I let John (my host parent, John...and the TCC pastor) in on how I was feeling a little tonight. He said that I've looked stressed and discouraged and assumed it was about my book report that I've been trying to do for weeks now. Anyways, I actually opened up and got a lot of things off my chest. I cried, a little, too...which was odd. I don't like to cry in front of men - especially men I hardly know.

But it was so great to be able to TALK to someone about issues. Not to email or to write them down in a journal that hardly anyone can read (not this one - my personal one). But it confirmed that I have to, very soon, get a mentor to be able to talk to - someone detached completely from the youth ministry trust team (my bosses) and people I work directly with and/or under.

He also encouraged me to go out in the next week or two for a couple of days - take a tent and a bible and spend some time alone. Get away from distractions. Refocus. Renovate.

It's a good idea. I'd already thought of it but I didn't want to ask if I could take off and not work for a few days. But I think he understands (and I know Karl will too) what's most important and I'm glad he encouraged me to do that. I'll do it after the 40 Hour Famine details get a little more smoothed out. So probably next Monday/Tuesday. Maybe even this coming Wednesday and Thursday...who knows? I don't plan on when I'm going to do it, but one of these days I'm just gunna go.

Anyways, I'm feeling a little more encouraged. I've had a few heavy things that I've taken on my shoulders lately and I'm starting to work towards letting them go. I think this new journey is going to be a good one.

Difficult. But good.

So that's where I'm at right now. No specific events to report...just feelings.

Which is good enough, I suppose?

Time for sleep.

Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills...

For some reason I have a lame song by the Spice Girls stuck in my head. It's not even one of their real songs, either, but the one from their movie Spice World, where they're performing on a variety show type of thing, singing "Come on, come on! Come on, come on! Come on, come on, come on!" and men in purple buttless unitards are dancing in the background.

Yikes. I don't know where it came from. Random songs in my head lately.

I just got back from yet another youth night. With once again, less people than last time. However, the three that went missing from last week have perfectly legitimate reasons and truly would have been there if they could. We play Lemonade Stand - which was a big hit. Each person has to squeeze an entire lemon into their mouths, a teaspoon of sugar and a mouthful of water, swish it around and spit it into a cup. Each person on the team does that until the first team with the full cup wins.

I then thought that I would have to pay one very brave person a lot of money to drink the "home made lemonade", but it turned out that we had to split it into 5 cups for some very willing people! haha But I also have to bring them prizes next week (though I'm certain they would have done it without the incentive). I must prepare for any backlash if even one of those children gets a cold this week. Ha. Oh well, they had fun.

We talked about changing the world a little at a time, and I spent a lot of time promoting the 40 Hour Famine which I'm sort of in charge of organizing (though we're still not sure who is really in charge, and no one will know until well into next week). I also let the kids know that the youth group has a sponsor child that we help out and let them know that each week we will be taking an offering for "Sarah from Uganda" - who really isn't a child at all. She's 19.

In a way, though, I feel bad by making this comparison, but it's like when you go to the shelter for a new pet and everyone wants the kittens and puppies, but not the dogs and cats that are close to full grown or even old. It's a great feeling to know that you're not just going for the young, cute ones, but giving the older ones a second chance at life. Sarah now has a grade 6 equivalent education and is continuing to improve. I'm excited for that.

I'm slightly discouraged, though, about the numbers. I KNOW that I shouldn't be playing the numbers game because every ministry leader has been told several times over that "if even one heart is touched in that room, it makes it ALL worth it" and that there should never be any comments of "only" 9 kids or something. Because each kid there is worth every moment. I just am frustrated that the senior aged kids were looking forward to having a youth person in town who could help them out and give them stuff to do, and now they don't even show up.

I suppose a Friday night program, however, does have a lot of other inticing activities to compete with.

So it's settled - the junior high program, "The Edge" is taking over Friday nights and "Fusion" will be bumped to Saturdays. I think it's funny that I've always thought I thrived on senior high kids, and that I do best with them. But I've come to discover that junior high boys, though hyper and very talkative sometimes, are really much more gung-ho about everything than any other age group. They're really excited to show up to youth.

I have to try not to give up on the seniors already. I have to, actually, remember to not give up at all. It's difficult, though, this discouragement. It very easily eats away at you, harvesting bitterness and worry.

But I'm honestly doing fairly well. Today I helped out with the college (high school) career day for the 15-16 year olds. I presented some typical job interview questions to the class and had a pretty good response. I also was an example interview conducted by a panel of students - they were interviewing me for a rocket scientist position and I was to be the interview to "not do". Ha. I had fun with it. Not only did the whole class laugh and get a good kick out of my absolute obnoxiousness (and sporadic laughter - I'm certainly not an actor), but they also did observe well and learned something from it. I also enjoyed giving my list of "skills and qualifications" for the position, including:
"Numchuck skills"
"Bow hunting skills"
"Computer hacking skills"
I think the class enjoyed it too - particularly one of my interviewers.

A lot of the kids, when I went out for lunch with a group of them (but other groups were hanging around) came to talk to me or tell me that they enjoyed the presentation. So I got in a little bit with them and I think it'll be a good start for hanging out and getting to know them and see what I can do to help them.

Anyways, thats my summary for the past while. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be going to Riverton for a youth speaker thing, but I think I might stay home. I feel bad, but I do have to clean my room and get this stupid book report done before my midterm exam comes in the mail in a matter of days. I also have to get started on my next newsletter that you'll all be getting at the end of the month, too. Plus, I'm really not into being a passenger in a car for more than 30 minutes right now. It makes me really uncomfortable/sick. Not fun. I have to learn how to say no, and I think tomorrow is going to be practice time.

Well, bedtime now. Ni-night.

This Week's Youth Update

Darrell is such a smart man. He commented on my last blog that I should see if my country radio station has a website. And DUH! I already knew there WAS one but I never even thought about listening to the live stream on the website!

Yeesh! So now I'm all happy listening to "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill (one of my favourite songs, for those of you who don't already know)...yay!

Anyways, I just got back from youth. Smaller turnout than last week, sadly. But there were a lot of junior highs, which more or less confirms that Friday nights are the best night for the juniors and we can switch up the seniors to Saturday night.

Since it was a small group, though, the games got old really fast so I had to improvise and pull another one out of my back pocket when it got to be too much...but they got the idea that God's rules are because He's got our best interests in mind, not just to ruin our fun. That was good. It would've gone over better on a non-churched crowd though. Some of the kids aren't really strong christians though so I hope they got the message.

Anyways, I'm not tired but I don't feel like going in the house. And I'm talking to a friend from back home about Banff and all its splendour. Ha. So I"m gunna do that even though I feel kinda rude for sitting in here while John and Fiona watch the Olympics, likely.

Woohoo for Country 95.3!

Chocolate Covered Hackey Sacks

Wow it's been quite a while since I updated last - I apologize...there isn't a whole lot of exciting things to report from this week, but mainly I've been really busy.

Last night there was a meeting for parents and people from the church who are interested in finding out about the youth ministry program and I spent all week tweaking and fine tuning a powerpoint and what I was going to say to these people, buying desserts and all that stuff.

It was pretty disappointing. In the beginning there were only 5 people who showed up, plus Cameron (Karl's youngest son) and one of the guys, Iain, from the trust committee. Well they're people too but it wasn't geared towards Cameron and Iain had to be there to be the trust committee's rep at the thing. John had to show up late coz he was at a rotary meeting, as was Karl. Oh and one person came in late. So a whopping 8 people in total heard the message and then Karl and John showed up just in time for dessert. Ha.

It was a little discouraging, but the two churches represented (no one from the baptist church came, just the Prezzies and TCC'ers) said that they would like to see the same presentation done on Sundays at the different church services because likely lots of people want to get involved, but it's so busy during the week that these sorts of meetings never have a good enough turnout to fill the full potential.

It was sad. Sort of my first independent effort to build healthy relationships with parents and church-goers for support in the ministry went a little down the tubes. But the people there were more than willing to fill out the "Ministry Needs-Response Form" and they filled out quite a few things, so at least I know I have a few very gung-ho types.

Tonight is the second Fusion. The boys and girls are having a competition to see who brings more friends along. I'm excited to see the turnout. I'm more or less ready to go, just need to buy a few game supplies and MAYBE put together a quick powerpoint for the message, but I'm probably going to stay away from that for now. Powerpoint seems to take up a LOT of my time coz I like to do it really well and cool looking and I think that Powerpoint and I need to "take a little break".

"No no, P.P. It's not you. It's me. I'm sorry..."


...?!?!

...yeah, ok. I'm officially running on a huge lack of sleep after staying up to ungodly hours of the morning watching the Olympics which already happened but we don't get them until way late at night. Oh, and by ungodly hours, I mean I went to bed at midnight. Much later than I've been going to bed these days - I average around 10:30 or 11, and still can't manage to drag myself out of bed until 9:15 or so, which is exactly 2 "snooze buttons" after the alarm goes off at first. I don't know why, I just don't sleep well during the night and when the morning comes is when I start to actually feel tired enough to stay in bed...but that's when I need to get up!

I believe Australia took its first gold ever yesterday, yes? It was cool.

Alright well it's working time. Mostly today is going to be meant for shopping for the event and relaxing before tonight. In a matter of weeks, my Fridays and Saturdays are going to be the busiest days between running the senior high and junior high programs - those are the only two days of the week that people are guaranteed to not have other commitments. I've already had a few junior highs asking "When's the Edge gunna start?! That looks SO cool!" hehe, cute kids.

Since this week was spent doing nothing but preparing for that stupid dessert meeting, I didn't get any program planning done. Sigh. So next week will be for that. Plus I have to start moving on this community worker thing - except most of this week has been trying to put together my job description and figure out exactly what I'm supposed to be doing for this job. I feel kinda like next pay is going to be ripping them off because I have a set salary and I certainly will not be spending 20 hours this week on community work stuff. Ugh. But I guess once things get rolling I'll be spending way more than 20 hours a week on it and making up for lost time.

Ok. I'm actually gunna go now. This is just rambling by now. I'll either update again tonight after the event or tomorrow - depending on how tired I am...

Jacquie, out.

P.S. I miss my country music station. That just reminded me of "Jason, out!" on Country 95.3's Family Fun Guide. Sad...

On the plus side, Reba is on tv every weekday at 11:30 am. My cellphone reminds me. :) It's my half-hour of freedom during the work day.

*Fusion* Kick-off Night

First youth event of the year. 16 kids (about twice as many as i'd expected). 3 leaders (me and the two pastors. ha). Lots of paper airplanes. And perhaps a few touched lives?

The night was started off with hanging out and introductions. John introduced me to the rest of the people and let them know what I was doing this year and explaining that it's taking a different route from GodZone which was previously running.

Then we played Paper Dart Blitz. The two teams had to get all of their paper darts (paper airplanes) on the OTHER side of the room in one minute. It was madness. They seemed to enjoy it.

Then it was Bigger and Better Rally time! Each of 4 teams got a 5 cent piece and were told to go out to find something bigger and better in 45 minutes. I told the story about my team stealing Rocky from the McPhersons. Katrina's team returned with...of course...Sheba. Ha.

Such unoriginality...I'm a genius for creating that idea to steal a dog!

Then we compared the findings and awared the prize. And then I gave my little 10 minute talk on becoming "Bigger and Better" - trading in the little things in our lives for the bigger prize: a relationship with God.

It was really great because not once did anyone want to sit out and thought they were "too cool" for it. They were quiet when I was talking. They were friendly and talked to me even though they'd never known me.

And best of all, I had a few of the kids ask me afterwards if we could talk one on one sometime because they could relate to part of my story that I talked about - the part about feeling worth about as much as that five cent piece but how God has helped me work up to the bigger and better prize and everything I've sacrificed along the way was completely worth it.

(I used the analogy that someone would be crazy to hold onto a DVD player when someone is offering them a helicopter! They agreed. Then I related it to live - why in the world would someone hold onto the little things that they think make them happy when that "helicopter" is out there (God's love) for the taking? It went over well.)

So yeah. There are 3 kids that I specifically will try to get a chance to talk to. I will be excited when my office is ready because then we can have meetings in there - sit and have coffee and talk.

I felt really good about the night until I got home and realized Sheba wasn't there. I also remembered that Katrina and I briefly looked for her before realizing (well, assuming) that John must've had her. I went out looking for about an hour - yelling and calling all over the town...I about died knowing that she is the absolute apple of Jackie and Fred's eyes (her owners) and we might've lost her.

But John did have her. Silly man not telling me he had her. And then going all the way to Manapouri with her. Bah. haha but at least she's home and I don't have to die for losing a dog that doesn't even belong to me.

The kids were really excited about the rally and now I'm sort of afraid that they're going to expect big blow out games like that all the time. I just don't have the oomph for that - I'm not a games person in the first place and now I'm afraid they'll always want high caliber games like that. Yikes.

Okay so yeah. It was a really great night. I'm excited - and even more ready to start really getting this program off the ground. It'll be a lot of work this week but I think that once I get a block plan in place and a games roster it'll be much easier from there.

And now it's bedtime. Long day. Not a long day ahead of me tomorrow though. I'm excited to try to sleep in a little before hitting the planning books again.

I'd plan it all now if I had the energy - that's how pumped I am!

This is so my element. What ever makes me think that I could be in the wrong profession?

*do do dodo do*

Indestructible NZ Notes!

Did you know that New Zealand and Australia money doesn't rip? And I don't mean just the coins! hehe

Some people do know this but I've come across a few people who have been absolutely flabbergasted that the Canadian government would make money that actually rips! Honestly you can try and try and it isn't going to happen!!! I've tried.

And tried. Ha.


Ok well I leave in an hour for worship practice. And then I'm staying at the church to set up and get ready for tonight. I really hope it goes well. I'm kinda nervous. I'm mostly nervous that we won't have enough cars. But that would be GREAT if we didn't have enough coz that would mean WAY more kids showed up than expected!

I'm nervous. The last thing I want is to have the whole night bomb in front of Karl and John. Maybe I already said that last time...but I am. Ugh.

Ok well time for me to go in and find a little late lunch before heading into the church.

I've got a great Kiwi-ism for this month's newsletter coming up. I hope nobody cheats...my pastor cheated! The slimy little man...be warned that anyone who cheats will be named in the "Not-So-Honourable Mentions" each monthly newsletter. Though, if you are really looking for some attention this might be your big shot!

Ok. Bye.

No pressure...

Well this is going to be a two-topic entry. I forgot to mention that yesterday I went with John and Fiona to Invercargill. It's, I think, the southernmost city in New Zealand...or at least on the South Island.

They had a regional meeting for their denomination and so I went with them. I thought I would have to walk around the city for 4 hours but when we got there, John handed me the keys to the truck. Fiona reminded me "stay to your left. give all right of way to anyone on your right" and they sent me off!

So I went out driving around Invercargill, which is INFINITELY bigger than Te Anau - meaning I had more than one lane each way to work with. I had turning lanes on the opposite side of the road. I had traffic all around me. It was INSANE! But I did quite well. Not a single accident. Not even a honk from another car. I, Jacquie Fleet, am a competent driver.

At least with an automatic transmission...

I raided the Christian Bookstore. I bought two pairs of boy shorts (that are perfect capri length on me). I bought a pair of sunglasses for less than $2 Canadian - and they actually look pretty decent!

I spent most of my money in the bookstore buying resources for the youth office/library. So I didn't have much left to spend at the end of it. But at least I'm getting that money back within a few days.


Ok so here's the other part of it - the part that relates to the title of this entry.

Today was a Youth Trust meeting (the guys that are in charge of funding and my job description...) and I was asked to come along to share my vision and plans for the upcoming year. After I gave a brief outline of my vision, mission and purpose for this ministry, they were quite impressed at the organization (ha. Timmy Moore made me look smart!).

Anyways, in the end, I left and John decided that his vision for Godzone (the youth event he's been running) has to go in a different direction and to let me have every Friday night. So now that I thought I was going to have a laid back week next week doing block plans and messages, I have to try to juggle that with planning twice as many events now.

I'm QUITE okay with that, of course. I love doing the ministry side of it. It just means a little more pressure on me now. Pretty soon I'll be starting up my community work as well, which is what I actually get paid for.

I also had a meeting with Karl to debrief what they spoke about at the meeting regarding the things I would be doing, as well as my pay, sorting out a time to sit down and create a concrete job description and contract, and talking about my office. It was good.

I'm excited that things are really getting underway. I'm even more excited that I'll be able to separate my home life from my work life rather than live in my workspace. Karl made it very clear that he wants to make sure I have a place to retreat to from work. I'm glad for him. He's a great boss!

Well really, I guess, the whole trust committee is my boss. But he's my point person. If it's not official, I nominate him now to make it official. Yay!

I'm excited to get paid next week, too! My visa bill is really starting to hate me!

Okay...that is all. Pray for the kids. Pray for a decent turnout and for me not to get discouraged even if it isn't as grandiose as I've been hoping for...

Yikes.

Juuuust waitin'...

I'm feeling pretty nervous about tomorrow. Right now I'm just trying to make sure I've got everything sorted out so there are no bugs to deal with.

I've got a LOT more stuff to do but I'm spending all my energy on just fine tuning this one thing and then I can start to get moving on the rest of the stuff that needs my attention as far as this job is concerned.

All I've got left to do, really, is to print and photocopy the flyer handouts but I don't even know if I should do that yet because I think we're thinking of changing the night to Saturday. That way the junior high program can have the Friday night and they can be run every week without interfering with John's Godzone that he usually runs.

Since my hands are sort of tied for another 3 hours or so when I can pick up the stuff to photocopy, though, I think I'm going to work on the Junior High program stuff...do some designing to get my mind off of nervousness.

As of right now, it seems, things are ready to go. Waiting is wretched though. Ha.

Oh. I'm so good!

Ahem...LET IT BE KNOWN THAT I AM NOW AN OFFICIAL DRIVER OF NEW ZEALAND!

Yes indeed, I have just learned how to drive manual transmission.

On the left side of the road!

I'm still alive! So is Karl (though he was only in the car for the first half of the lesson and from there it was ALL ME!)! And so is every man, woman, child and living creature in Te Anau!

Stalls: 2
Wrong-Side Drive: 1
(hey it was after a left hand turn alright? give me a break! the guy...behind me...was nice enough to not kill me! ha)
Left-Side Curb Bumps: 3
(ok so i'm not used to having to watch the left hand side of the car from the right side. i keep driving too close to the curb - especially on a left turn - coz i feel like my body should be on that side of the road, make sense?)

BUT it wasn't a total failure! I feel comfortable doing it! I just remembered Mike always telling me "EITHER the gas or the clutch. one has to be down at all times."...aww brotherly advice. Thanks Mikey! haha

Alright that's my story. Now it's lunchtime. There's no one home to celebrate with me though...

Sad...

BUT YAY!!!

Waitangi Day

Today was Waitangi Day here in New Zealand.

It's the day where the country celebrates the signing of the treaty between the Maori people and the Queen of England.

And by celebrate, I mean that apparently there's just been nothing but issues since then. A lot of bitterness and tension between the Maori's and the Caucasians (it reminds me a little of the tension in Canada with the natives) - the Maori's feel repressed and overtaken and all that and usually Waitangi Day now serves as a "bellyaching day" according to some people.

What puts it sort of in common with Canada as well is that the day after Waitangi Day is when school starts. Kind of like Labour Day (which, to be honest, I haven't the slightest clue about the origins and reason for it - probably has something to do with unions and all that jazz which would mean my daddy will be very disappointed that his little girl doesn't know) where the kids go back for their first day of the school year right after that particular holiday.

So yes, that means the kids go back to school tomorrow. And yes that means that this week is the first youth event...which makes me slightly nervous coz I have a lot of work to do this week.

But it'll sort out. You can be certain of that!

Almost bedtime. But for now I'll do some extra reading up on Waitangi Day and figuring out this game called Rugby.

Backgammon = A Violent Sport

The past few days have been pretty low key. Yesterday Vanessa packed up her stuff and left for Dunedin for good. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye coz I was down at the wharf helping John get the boat ready for our family afternoon outing to the island (a beautiful beach and forested island in the middle of Lake Te Anau). So when we got back, Nesser was gone and I didn't get an official goodbye secret handshake. Sad but I'll see her again soon hopefully.

So then much of the family got together (well the bunch of us that are normally all together), including John and Fiona, Katrina and the four kids, and Amber (John's second oldest daughter) and her daughter, Soraya. And one of the boys' friend, Levi, came along as well. We all piled into this little "chugga chug", which is really pronounced "chooga choog" in the Kiwi accent...and it really is just that - it just chugs along in the water. Nothing fancy but certainly not a total piece of junk. Haha.

We took it out to the beach, where Katrina and I immediately continued our ongoing waterfight - she started kicking water at me so I tackled her. We shook hands, congratulated eachother and continued on with our day. We did lots of swimming, hanging around, taking pictures and talking. I was launching the boys out in the water much like my dad used to do with me (sort of) and after about 30 minutes, at least half of the children present were naked. Haha. Destinee was always naked but then it was Soraya, Matiu, and Wiremu's turn...the only kids that stayed clothed were the two oldest, Wherete and Levi.

I will have added in the pictures I've taken from yesterday in the "People of Te Anau" section of my photo album probably by the time you all read this so be sure to check out some of the cool pictures I took.

So then we all went back into the bush to a firepit that was there to start it up and cook some sausages on sticks over the fire. It's interesting because sausages are often in something similar to a hot dog package. And they're already pre-cooked like hot dogs but they taste like...sausages! So we ate those, packed up our stuff and headed back for the evening.

I got sunburnt. Again. But it still doesn't hurt. How strange! Normally I'm in excruciating pain after being sunburnt.

Then last night I spent a little more time with Amber and John's oldest daughter Annie at a local pub/restaurant to see a jazz guitarist from the UK. I got home really late, coz it didn't start til about 9 or 9:30...and had a terrible sleep all night.

Then I played drums this morning at the Prezzy church. And had a nap. And then TCC at 7. And now I'm going to bed after a half hour of watching a gruelling and violent couple of rounds of Backgammon with John and Fiona. I think I've finally learned how to play it...

So like I said...low key and not too exciting but this week is going to be busy. The first youth event kicks off Friday night and I'm a little nervous. We're having a "Bigger and Better" rally (yes, I know, stolen from Axis back in Canada) and even the theme of the talk is going to be relating to trading in the little things for something bigger and better. I'm excited but I'm nervous...I have a lot of work to do this week.

So that's all. I had a terrible sleep last night, as I already mentioned, so I'm going to bed. Tomorrow's my day off and I'm going to sleep and rest and do all that fun stuff! Wahoo!

New Zealanders: A Blasphemous Breed

Okay so hi. I'm back again! :)

Miss me? hehe

So today has been a pretty good day. I got up at 5 am (?!?!?!?!?) for a "Faith in the Workplace" breakfast over at the church. It was pretty good, though once again (as it always seems in the Prezzy church) I was the youngest. And the next youngest was...Karl. Yes. The pastor. Who has two sons in their pre-teens. How fun!

But that's not the strangest part...let me just tell you that we had french toast, bacon (smoked bacon, it was really nice), sausages and eggs. BUT since I'm more of a "bread" person than an "egg" person, and a "bacon" person rather than a "sausage" person...I only took french toast and bacon the first time around. Then I went looking for the syrup...

(probably only my family knows this, but I put syrup on practically EVERYthing when it comes to breakfast foods. i can't survive without it! ESPECIALLY on pancakes or french toast- it's just wrong without it! ok and so is bacon...has to have syrup)

So anyways...I looked around and I didn't see any. I figured that my mother would at that point say "Open your eyes!" and she'd reach right in front of me and pass it to me. So I made a joke and said "I must be either blind or Canadian coz I can't see the syrup anywhere!"

Rae, the lady beside me, said "Nope. You're definitely Canadian."


?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Let me say that again...

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!!!????!!!???!!!!!!???!?!?!?!??!?!??!!!!?!?!?!?!!!

WHAT?! NO SYRUP?!

I don't even care of it's not MAPLE, I actually prefer table syrup to maple syrup! But they didn't have any!!!!

Folks, I ate my french toast DRY. Do you KNOW what that's like? If you're my family, you also probably know that I don't even really like french toast that much in the first place but I'd rather eat that than egg whites.

As my buddy Rachel says...IT'S BLASPHEMY!!! I mean, I do realize that I'm slightly a freak by drowning my bacon in syrup, but Rae even went so far as to tell me that most of the people in the room actually would've put... get this...

SALT AND PEPPER (?!?!) on their FRENCH TOAST! What in the WORLD?!

So now I've decided to move. I'm leaving this blasphemous country!

Ha. Yeah right! This was just one breakfast and since I know they'll have more, I'll be sure to bring my OWN syrup next time! That's right, I'll teach them a lesson. Then they'll try it and SEE THE LIGHT!

But I'm happy that when I told John and Fiona about it, they were just as shocked as I was not to have syrup on french toast. They happily own a bottle of syrup themselves, so I think I can handle living here...as long as I stay with them and their syruppy goodness.

...or I could just buy my own...ha!


So onto the next thing - Karl and I got together today for a meeting about various pre-school-year things. We discussed my pay (yay it's not going to be as long a wait as I thought!) and the possibility of getting an office for me to use so I'm not in my room doing my work. This way I can more easily buckle down and do work rather because I'll be in a different setting than when I'm just chatting online...in my room...which is what often tends to happen when I should be doing work. But it's so easy to get distracted when I'm in my bedroom. And this way it'll be easier for them to know what my working hours have actually been like.

So I'm looking forward to it. We're cleaning out the shed out behind the church building itself so I'll have a desk, my computer, shelves, etc...and then there's also room for a bit of a lounge for the youth - we'll put in a few old sofas and a coffee table for a more youthy-comfortable feel. I'm excited for this new prospect. It was on a spur of the moment that I mentioned it was hard to do my work in my room and Karl just said "well let's look into getting you an office at the church then"...and he did. And already he's found me a desk. We only just left the church thinking about potentials and maybes about an hour and a half ago.

Anyways, that's about all I guess. I just wanted to go through my day because it's felt like a good one so far. I enjoy good days. Though it hasn't been overly productive as far as work goes...I'm excited to get cracking on this office. My car's in getting a warrant and check up right now too so it'll be here in a few days. Yikes. I'm nervous.

Ok. Time to go....do......something...ha.

Worship/Sunday School Overload?

I'm looking out my window towards the mountains at 3:30 pm...and I can hardly see them for the clouds so low in the sky. A storm's a-brewin' - I can smell rain. I LOVE that smell!

Well the past few days have been pretty low-key. I've made myself a schedule so I can start balancing school and work stuff (at least that's how it has to work until I can finally be done with this correspondence course from Briercrest), but I haven't done too well sticking by it.

But I have been, however, spending a couple of days this week with Karl and his family. I don't know if I mentioned this before but I went over for tea one night at 6 and it was well into 9:30 before I finally left. They're a wonderful family, really.

I went to a worship meeting the other night with the Prezzy church so everyone could get out their ideas for music this coming year - and to work out a roster for who will be leading and playing each week. It was an intense meeting that was really all over the place.

It was difficult to stay on track with one lady constantly asking me about the youth program underneath the discussion about the topic at hand. This was also the same lady who kept insisting on a more "traditional service" and trying to say that when tourists show up, they don't like that it's so liberal and different. Which is actually the opposite sort of feedback that Karl and Lynley have received.

"Well if they didn't like it they very well wouldn't say it now would they?"

Ha. Anyways. It was interesting. It was discovered that I could fill in really anywhere - be it on a kit, a guit, a mic or a computer. As long as it doesn't have keys I'm happy (minus the computer) So for the next 13 weeks let me just tell you what I'm doing...

For 3 Sundays, I am drumming. For two Sundays I'm on guit (ar...but I like saying guit. It's a funny word...hehe...GIT!). Two Sundays I'm singing (one of them I'm LEADING as well as playing guitar). So that's 6 of the 13. And then for 3 weeks in there I'm also leading Sunday School for the 10-14 year old boys. Haha...YAY (as most of you know, 14 year old boys are my FAVOURITE!) ...

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(this is what it looks like when I'm trying to type a sarcastic/evil glare)

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Haha okay so it's not as bad as I'm letting on. The boys I've met so far in that age group are really quite cute. They even help out with PowerPoint on Sundays! How adorable!


Please pray for the Steffens family. Vanessa (the youngest in the house) has made a choice to move away with her father in Dunedin. Fiona's not taking this too well, and Vanessa isn't being too sensitive about the situation.
Also pray for Katrina, Fiona's oldest daughter, who has been having some troubles with her ex (the kids' dad) living at the house. He refuses to leave but if he doesn't leave, Katrina could owe the government a lot of money for welfare and would then have no way at all to support her kids. It's not a fun situation.
Mostly pray for the stress that's been around in the house lately because of these different sorts of things. I try not to get in the way too much but I feel like I should be doing something, though I don't know what.

Ok. Time for a different entry now. :) I find it's much easier to write two separate entries - and much more enjoyable for you to read! Sorry about some of the novels I've had here in the past, but if you love me you've read through them all!!! teehee

Wanaka Adventures

This past weekend about 15 of us from TCC went to Wanaka for a Worship Convention put on by these people - Jeremy and Connie something or other from Toronto Airport something or other! As you can tell, I pay great attention to details!

When I say 15 of us went, I mean that about 5 of us WEREN'T actually related to John or Fiona in some way...it's quite funny that when I say TCC is involved in something, it normally means that the most people that attended was about 20 and half of them (literally) were related to John and Fiona somehow!

Anyways - back on track. It was a pretty good weekend. Wanaka is about 3 hours away from here and we had to literally drive up the side and over the top of a mountain to get there. Not good for Jacquie who still gets slightly carsick in the backseat while driving on the wrong side of the road. If I had been in the front I'd be okay but for some reason the constant climbing, winding and speed fluctuations were doing a number on my tummy. I had to close my eyes and put up with getting the "well you've never been to this country and you aren't even looking at the scenery!" - at this point I've started to figure that if I've seen one mountain (or if I've seen over a hundred), I've seen them all. Wake me up when one of them is made of gold, otherwise don't bother me! haha

I drove up with 3 people who aren't in John's family - but two of them are also in their 60's or 70's and one is a younger mother of 4. Now normally, for those of you who knows me, I'm not extremely keen on anyone over 30 (and even that's pushing it!). I shouldn't say that - I just mean that I have a much harder time trying to make conversation because I'm not used to grown up conversations! haha so it was a good stretch for me that I would be travelling and staying with people who aren't youth, and who aren't in the Steffens-Stevenson-Henry family.

When we first got to Wanaka, the first thing we noticed was the HEAT! It was about 35 there, easily. Bronwyn (the younger of the 3) and I decided to walk down to the lake where I promptly took off my shoes and ran fully clothed into my first body of New Zealand water (which was SOOO blue, might I add!) She just hiked up her skirt a little and walked around in the water a bit...but then she got jealous, probably figured "stuff it! i'm going in!" and she came in to join me in her clothes too! haha

That was one of the highlights of my weekend.

To be honest, I've always joked with the rest of the world about sermons having numbered points and alliteration for each point and whatnot...but I've realized now that it's probably the best way for me to be able to pay attention because everytime I've been here when a sermon doesn't follow that general structure, I completely tune out because it's just too all-over-the-place for me!

That's how these Jeremy and Connie people spoke. I didn't get a whole lot out of the weekend as far as the convention goes. There was nothing "blow me away" about it, neither did I learn anything new, nor did I enjoy the atmosphere (speaking in terms of YC "atmosphere" - it was just a hall with chairs. I suppose that's the difference between trying to appeal to an adult crowd rather than a youth crowd).

But, as my friend pointed out, I got something much more valuable than good music and speaking out of the weekend. There was a group of 6 people that I ended up sitting right beside during all of the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions (this was after I broke away from the rest of my group to sit up on the mezzanine floor...otherwise I couldn't see...*sniff*). Anyways, this group of girls (well, ladies, I guess...) and one dear man were SO wonderful all weekend - they were always saying hello and making sure they remembered my name and even invited me into their prayer group at the end of Saturday night when I found myself with no serious people to pray with when we were told to (I had some youth with me who weren't really interested). It was so wonderful how much they cared about this ministry and cared about me although they had only met me 12 hours previously! What in the world?! It was the greatest thing ever! So they have my contact information and since they work with the youth in their church, they want to plan a joint youth event sometime this year!

That was the second highlight of my weekend.

And the third highlight was SOOOO GREAT! It had absolutely nothing to do with the convention whatsoever, but right after the last session we could attend, I headed over to the Lakeside, handed a strange woman WAY too much money, got hooked up to a harness with a man behind me...and a PARACHUTE behind him! And we launched off the beach, pulled by a boat, flew 800 or so metres in the air, dropped the line to the boat and paraglided all the way back to the beach! It was SO great! I had always loved flying because I could see over so much - even if it was only through a tiny airplane window. But this was like...I could see EVERYthing - right down to the blues, greens, and turquoises in the different depths of the lake below me (note that I didn't mention brown's or sludge's). And I got to control the chute while Matt (my tandem pilot) took pictures of us. Then he took over as we got back to the beach and just above the crowd at the bottom, he started doing some wicked acrobatics - spinning and spiralling us around before taking in for a landing. It was WOOONDERFUL!

I will be putting up the pictures that were taking from the ground when I get a chance to (it always takes a really long time to upload them) so look for a "Paragliding" link in my photo album list on the side there and if it's not there yet, it will be soon!

So it was a good end to a decent weekend - we left immediately after I landed, prettymuch. I had a whole new look at the mountains while driving home, remembering what it's like to fly above and between them! I had not a hint of carsick the whole way!

The end - this is probably huge by now - I apologize. TEEHEE!