Quote by request

"The walk of the Christian is not an easy one but every valley has its mountains and every desert its end."

Cashmere High School Formal 2006

For those of you who haven't seen this photo yet, I won't deprive you (unless Lydia asks me to take it off here)

It was a night I will remember for ever.

Pre-Formal

Last Sunday I went to the Stewart's house for lunch (and some more dance practice). It was heaps of fun and the adrenaline is flowing through me with such anticipation of my formal night. Why's my formal important to me? The formal is important because this is my last year of High School, after this year I am moving out into the world, I'm leaving the people I love (by not seeing them on such a regular basis) and moving down south to Otago University. (I applied yesterday). That of course doesn't mean I won't be coming back home every chance I get. But this formal marks the end of my schooling and the beginning of the big wide world. I want to work in the world doing something I love and at the same time being able to support a family I one day hope to have. The formal marks the beginning of this new life I'm headed into. It's important to me because this is where I get to see my school friends in all their glammer, out of school, elegant, a different side to them, and not nessesarily a façade of themselves but more so a different angle of their lives. Most of these school acquaintances and friends are people I either won't see ever again or won't see for a long time and I want to have a night that I will remember for the rest of my life, a distinct marker that not only remembers those people who influenced my schooling life and therefore impacted my wider life also, but also to remember the best time I had with them most distinctly. This is most likely the last school formal I will ever go to and therefore it is even more memorable and important to me than if it were otherwise. I bought a suit a week or so ago and I completed it yesterday when I bought my shoes (the last item I needed to conclude the whole suit) It won't be the last time I put the suit on and everytime I do will be memorable for this formal and for any other time I feel the need to dress up for a special occassion. I believe that everything that happens at the Formal is a part of God's will for my life and all the circumstances that have lead up to it have been influenced by His firm, omnipotent hand. There is not much I can do now but be excited and spend time with God asking for His divine influence on Saturday so that I, and those I go with, will walk down the path God has set for us with a loving heart and a synonymous (to God's) mind. I've realised that the more time I spend with God in my day, the more time He spends with me. And I can see it by reflecting on my own life. So thanks God! I really appreciate the time you've put into my life to make marvellous, wonderful, unbelievable, miraculous circumstances unfold in my life!

Youthgroup - Mission Possible

Yesterday night for youthgroup we split up into 3 groups. My group's purpose was to head up to the highest point above Christchurch and take some camera shots of landmarks (schools/stadiums/pier/church/parks/etc) Then we were to gather around in prayer and pray for four things: For schools we could see, for churches we could see, for those who did not know God, and for those who were in spiritual battles. Why? Because Moses found a high point above the battleground and raised his hands in faith. As his hands were raised the Israelites were favoured in battle and when his hands dropped his enemies would begin to gain advantage. eventually his arms became sore and he could no longer lift them, so Aaron and Joshua (I think) stood on either side of him and supported his raised arms. We stood on the hill, and prayed over the city. Although my team didn't really like it that we went to the chair (a place on the hill) over the sign of the bellbird (another place) I really enjoyed it because I always find the chair as a very spiritual place. After our prayer we got back into the van and headed back to Aaron and Summer's place for supper. Lydia felt uncomfortable most of the journey back...for some reason unbeknown and completely unrelated to myself and various other people in the van ;). Then with pictures we had taken from the hilltop aswell as other groups photos we watched some slideshows and each group talked about their task and how they set about to achieve that. I really enjoyed the evening.

On the music side of things, I've got right back into Bon Jovi and so my music reccomendations for this month are as follows:

Dance With You - Live
In These Arms - Bon Jovi
I'll Be There For You - Bon Jovi
Stronger - Delirious?

These are all songs that I can listen to over and over and never get bored of. They're songs that really trigger emotions, even if you never show them and I like that.

week

I went to the midwinter Christmas dinner on Friday. There wasn't so much of me on the camera this year but I definitely got a video in of me stuffing my face with icecream. Lots of good food, humour, helium balloons, company, etc. I haven't completely filled myself up for a while but by 10pm I was completely stuffed. A few of us went to Amy's new flat in Merivale and watched Hitch - I was taking mental notes of how to dance at my formal (pelvic thrust, shopping for pizza, making the pizza, the lawnmower, the lighthouse, and other great dance moves). At about 1:30 Steve J dropped the other people in his car home and he, Mark and I went to church and had a snow fight with the snow they had for the entrance to the Christmas Dinner. We ofcourse played around in it until Steve got hurt. Mark seemed to be the only one not hurting by the end of it but I think it was fair to say that Stephen got the most injured. So Steve drove home and we went to bed so we could get up early the next morning for Youthtrain. I was up early enough to drive around to Steve's place to take him to youthtrain (he asked for a ride the night before) but after spending 15mins knocking on his door, ringing his mobile phone (which was, unbeknown to me, in his car) and ringing his doorbell I eventually gave up and headed there by myself. He drove himself there a few minutes later. I think a lot of us were very tired that morning, from either going to Amy's or studying for tests.

After youthtrain Mark and I went to Steve's house and ate another massive meal, so to burn it off we headed into the port hills and climbed some rocks. Then we got home just before 6pm to have dinner with Rach's boyfriend's Father and two of his sisters.

The service this morning was very different to usual. We went over the Elizabeth/Mary meeting verses in Luke and then we talked about what stuck out to us in what we listened to or what question we would ask, after hearing the verses, to a theologian. After discussing our answers with a "distant relation" or two we listened to people stand up around the church and share what their "distant relation" discussed with them. As Steve Taylor pointed out, this was not just one sermon, not just the Holy Spirit talking to one person, but rather the Holy Spirit among us as a congregation and several, many, people preaching as they taught the congregation what they had learned from their discussion with their "distant relation".

I asked Bob Jaegar last Sunday if he would consider being my Mentor. I have a lot of respect for him and because of various things I believe he is the person that God wants to mentor me. I'm really happy that today Bob confirmed he would be my mentor and I am meeting with him tomorrow evening. My Growth Coaching with Jason is almost over now and my last task in it was to find a mentor.

My week this week will be quite busy, tomorrow i'll have my mentor meeting, then Tuesday I'll have to get started on my homework, Wednesday is reserved for youthgroup, Thursday set aside for YouthAlpha, and Friday has been claimed by my growthcoaching meeting which will later be followed by a party with my friends from school (many people will not be drinking as several christians will be attending). Saturday will be engulfed by Iceskating with the Youthgroup's Saturday Events.

So that's my week all lined up for inspection. On wednesday my head of school (dean) should be giving out the forms to fill out if we need to invite people from other schools to the formal (I've been nagging him about it)

Time for me to go to work now.

Learning To Dance

I went to my friend's house yesterday afternoon adn she taught me how to dance. I wasn't there very long and she taught me how to dance in a small square. After coming home and practising enough to do it without stuffing up or looking down at my feet I learned how to do the foxtrot (atleast that's what I think I learnt). Now all I need to learn is how to add in all the spinny things and good looking tricks. I've also gotta hope that there will be lots of people ballroom dancing at my formal. I'm buying a suit Saturday week.

Youthtrain is starting up again this Saturday. It's gonna be good.

Anyway, I've got to be getting to work. Just thought I should update well I had a little bit of freetime.