Sleeping under the Stars...

Oh my! OH MY! Oh myyyyy!!! WHAT A WEEK! Where do I even begin.... Ok... the rap!!
As I stated at the end of my last blog, all of us muso's were given our little assignment for the week... this week me and Steph were given the bible story Jonah and the Whale and had to perform a musical item about this story in the genre of rap/hip hop to the whole base :) ahaha it was so funny! We downloaded a piece of music from 'beats.com' borrowed a few items of clothing from a few of the guys (Thankyou Matt for lending us your pants!) and unleashed our inner ganster... Needless to say, I think we both have a great future ahead of us as rappers... perhaps with the stage names JONIZZLE and WHALEZILLA! It was a  gooood night which included Noemi and Schnegg performing a musical/opera, Matt and Jacob performing disco, Kat and Elisa performing country, and Henk and Hannah D performing a fabulous regae number :)

We had Frank Naea speaking this week about the Father Heart of God.... man oh man! This guy just radiates the Father heart of God! He is this massive guy who has the most gentle spirit and kind of looks like a marshmellow! He gives the BEST hugs and it kind of feels like you are being swallowed by a huge marshmellow :) Man was he the perfect guy to speak about Gods Father Heart! This was definitely a week of  breakthroughs for so many people! Me included! On Tuesday we all fasted for the whole day and had this flipping awesome time of ministry in the evening... Man... God is breaking so much stuff off my heart and changing me so much! It seems like he's doing this really deep healing of my soul which even I'm not quite sure what's happening... But something is! God just began breaking off things like my insecurities and my tendency to always STRIVE for God's approval and just things like how I'm constantly trying to get my self worth from those around me etc... It was kind of a painful week  for me actually because for me it was more about God highlighting these things and beginning to change my heart... So yeah... Gods changing me!!

We did this awesome prophecy workshop on Saturday (which was amazing) and someone had the word for me "God's doing an evolution in you" so true.... I'm going to be a totally changed person by the time this is all over. We all are... Gods breaking me apart and rearranging and changing me in ways I couldn't even imagine!! God's also blessed with the most amazing friendships out of this!! We are literally like family :) and it's only been a MONTH!! flip! it's crazy... I love everyone here so much and... hahaha we've had some goood times.....

Sleep...I need more.... I slept outside TWO NIGHTS  IN A ROW this weekend! The first night on the trampoline snuggled with my favorite Hannah and little Mimi, which ended when it started raining at about 3 in the morning, and the second night because we had a bonfire (made by Kyle, our resident Bear Grylls) and it was such a beautiful night! SO MANY STARS!! It started out with Elisa, Becc, Marit, Steph, Mimi and myself, but by the time I woke up in the morning (To the sound of Matt and Schnegg's lovely voices.... "ROBINSON! what are you doing??!") I was the only one left... it was awesome though... and you know what they say... YOLO!

Anyway... The next two weeks are going to be AWESOME!! We are doing this thing called Circuit Riders! Where basically our DTS and two others, plus some extra's are coming together to do this evangelism school... myyy wooorrrd I am so excited!! We went today and my Spirit just stirred when these two guys from the States were talking... we were praying over each other and being physically healed! God used me to heal someone!! :O Maaaan revival is coming to New Zealand! I truly believe it!! Something in my soul gets so excited when they were speaking! We're going to go out and basically preach the word to Tauranga this week (after some training) and God is going to move...

Watch out guys... God's stirring up a storm in New Zealand... Stuff is going to happen aaaannnnd I don't know about you but I wanna be part of it!! AARRG SO EXCITING!!

Daisy chains and Burn nights

Soooo...

It is a official... I have a fractured toe... and Guess how it happened?! No... it wasn't playing catch like the last time a fractured a bone... This time it was playing soccer! The Hannah's (plural) v Matt and blond Hannah missed the ball and instead kicked Matt in the back of the foot. hard! Thankfully he's ok but I'm now limping around with a broken toe after a doctors visit that consisted of.. "Ok... this x-ray shows you have a crack in your left big toe... we can't do anything about it so... don't go playing soccer or kicking anybody else for a while! Now can I have $60...." hahaha typical Hannah senario...

Toes aside... we had a Burn Night on Friday night!!! My GOODNESS it was amazing!!! 24 hours of solid worship and fasting!! BOOM God's presence was so intensely there... it was incredible!! So I've come away from it with no voice and several profound revelations about God's grace, and about how life with God is like a waltz with him... We just need to let him lead, trust him and let him sweep us off our feet!! MAN it was profound!! God is so amazing!!

After a much needed sleep in today, all the music and worship peeps decided to go on a picnic! as it's such a beautiful day today!! We a good time... including daisy chain making, piggy back races, head stands and much frolicking!! it was a beautiful thing... We also got given our music assignment this week!! BAHAHa we got paired up randomly, given a genre and a bible story and have to perform it this Thursday night during base open mike!! So this Thursday me and Steph (aka The Blondes in the Back) will be performing a spectacular rap/hip hop number about Jonah and the whale!! It's gonna be off the sheeezyyy!!

I'm also veerrry excited about our speaker this week!! His name is Frank (can't remember the last name!) and I've heard a lot of good things about him!! We're going to be learning about the father heart of God which should be amazing!! Bring it on God!!

Anyway.. must go as I've gotta go for my weekend duties :) catch you!!

P.S Thankyou Alex for my LOVELY parcel!! You are amazing and HAPPPPYYYY BIRRRTHDAY!!!

strawberry, rasberry and logansomething tea!

Hey Home dogs!!
Sorry it's been a while... my internet screwed up a couple of days ago and then I thought it had run out and that I had to buy some more and havn't been able too.... and then I realised that I actually don't!

Sooo.... where to begin!! This past week (like the one before) has been totally and utterly life changing! This place is starting to feel more and more like home! Cabin 5 is definitely the better girls cabin ;) despite the slight hike we have to embark on every time we need to make a trip home! I luurrrvvveee my roomies Mimi and Marit Carrot! We are definitely one of the messier rooms... (Much to Noemi's dismay) but we are fabulous none the less!!

Some of the funnier moments during the week include accidentally cooking a pen... Bahaha which is now proudly kept in our room! Kyle (our resident hunter who has already caught a possum and two eels) accidentally breaking a vase with a toy hippo, having an epic sock wrestling match for our combined girls small group this week (we unleashed our inner animal!)... Hmmm there has been lots more hilarity but by golly I can'y remember it!!

Other highlights include watching Tarzan and The Prince of Egypt, having my first bite of a peanut butter and jelly (jam) sandwich! Thanks J-dog... it was a beautiful moment! drinking LOTS of tea and discovering that black english breakfast tea and honey is AMAZING!! tryyy itttt! jamming in a local Matamata coffee shop with Steph, Jacob and Henk, and of COURSE hanging out with all of the amazing people here!

But of course the BIGGEST highlight is the amazing stuff that God is doing..... Myyy gooodness!! We are all going to be totally transformed people by the time we finish this DTS! The speaker that we had last week was this awesome guy called Josh Coles!
Maaannn God gave me revelation after revelation about Him and his absolute power and authority and his BEAUTY!! and just the fact that God enjoys me?!! He doesn't just love me because he's my Father and he has too, he actually likes me... as I am... and enjoys me??!! This totally blew my mind!!
I just have this sense that God is totally starting to deepen my relationship with him... that's he's pulling out the roots which need to be pulled out (I had this real time of healing last thursday... where in my mind I wasn't even sure what was going on, but  I could sense God doing things in my heart and I was just weeping uncontrollably!) and planting seeds which need to be planted!

God also really spoke into my life through others last week revealing some of the stuff which he's got planned for my future... I won't go into them here but if you wanna know about it flick me an email and I'll let you know! I'm excited!! :D
We've also started splitting into our two courses during the weekends (Music and Worship/Outdoor Pursuits) So while the OP guys were swinging from a rope somewhere in the tree tops, us muso's went on this river walk for inspiration for song writing (which when compared to what the OP's were doing sounds kinda lame, but was actually amazing!) we all just did this walk at our own pace with God and it was BEAUTIFUL! Like it was stunning... and we all kind of had this really intimate time with God while enjoying his beauty... And when we got to the end (despite the winter-ish temperatures at the moment) we all jumped into this water hole! Bahaha it was so funny and FREEZING!! aannd then we went to get COFFEE which was worth mentioning because the company and the coffee was outstanding!
ANYWAY! Our little mission for the next 24 hours after that walk was to write a song... many of the people including myself had not really/never written songs before, but when we were all got together on Sunday evening I was blown away by the songs that were totally God inspired and beautiful! Like actually it was amazing! And... yes... I did write a song despite my limited guitar knowledge (with God's help) which was pretty exciting! God's going to do amazing stuff through the Muso's... I'm sure of it!!

Anyway... despite all that, there have been struggles... being brutally honest I'm struggling a little bit with pride (eeek.. don't like saying that!) and putting God completely and utterly as Lord in my life... there's still part of me that's holding onto this goal of living an accepted and successful life by worldly standards (you know... things like getting married!) when I really just need to release these things up to him and allow his will to be done!

But yeah that is a BRIEF (believe it or not) overview of what's been going down in Hannah town recently! Arrg there was so much more stuff which at the time I was like 'I must include this in my blog!' but alas! My memory is failing me!! I'm going to try and apdate this more regularly to avoid these rather long rambly blogs!! Sawwweeeet!

Love you AAALLL!!!!
Ola Vache!!

First week finished already?? WHAT??!!

SO! Last time I updated this blog I was living with a bunch of strangers and acquaintances... and now only A WEEK later we are family :)
I have literally had the most inspiring and absolutely incredible time and it's only been ONE WEEK :O

hmmmmm where to begin...

Life stories. Right. This literally blew my mind. We all got up infront of everyone after knowing them for about three days and basically spilled our guts... Everyone was soooo honest and laid out everything... For me, someone who is the queen of putting up masks and who is has this fear of being rejected by those around me this was absolutely terrifying aaaaannnd totally rewarding! It was the weirdest feeling because in the space of two days the people around me went from being people who I had just met, to a bunch of people that I literally knew all their deepest darkest secrets... All their fears and insecurities and things which they had never told anyone before... and they ALL knew mine!! AARRG!

I LOVE the people on this course already!! Bahaha! We've had some such good times already :p did you know that in Canada a beanie is called a toque?! and a toastie is called a "grilled cheese" hahaha and in Switzerland the equivalent of "Oh my gosh!" is "Ola Vache!" (or "Oh the Cow!")
other exciting past times have been belting out the air guitar to Queen, having dance parties in the Gap, the all important "Snuggle time!" (a lot more innocent than it sounds!), Extreme Uno, and yes... I have introduced Mao... to which Schegg, the Swiss guy exclaimed (as I was explaining the 'there are no rules' rule) "What?! Do you even speak English?!" hahaha it was so funny! apparently the Kiwi accent is a lot harder to understand then I first anticipated!

The speaker we had this week was Mal Maloney :) he was this 60 something year old guy who was speaking on the Holy Spirit and Ola VACHE, my word, God blew my mind! I learnt so much! I don't know how to condense it down into a blog!
We had this ministry time and God gave me word through Mal saying that God's going to use me to minister with kids! haha I was completely overcome by God and just could not stop laughing!! hahahaha the funny thing is is that the next day God gave me the BIGGEST revelation of the Father's love and I could not stop crying!! God just poured out waves of his love onto me! Life changingly INSANE!

Hahaha so one day I'm CRACKING up laughing! and he next I'm BAWLING! what is this??!! Like everyday God is working in all of us... it's AMAAAAZZZIIINNG!

So yesterday was sooo much fun!!

We went on a trip to the beach.
And anyone who knows me knows how I feel about the beach.
We went swimming... (well... only four of us!) and had a scavenger hunt which including things such as serenading a stranger, having a dance party in the middle of the street, and getting a picture with something Dora the explorer related... It was fun :)

Sooo I promised myself that I wasn't going to do looooong blogs but as you can see that promise is broken already! Meh I was never that good with goals anyway!

Love you all lots :)
hugs and kisses from MATAMAAATTTA! :)

It's officially started!!

So.
I'm here!! all the preparation and packing and needles and working and buying first aid kits has lead up to this! I"M IN MATAMATA!! on YWAM!! It's ACTUALLY happening!!!

My beautiful loving family decided to make a little bit of a holiday out of dropping me off, so we stayed a few nights in Taupo (and ate LOTS of hashbrowns) and they then dropped a rather nervous, slightly excited and just all round jittery me at the base yesterday afternoon, where I got SUCH a warm welcome! Everyone is so lovely here! and although I still havn't got to know them all that well yet, lovely friendships are in the making! However me and the ONE OTHER kiwi student do feel slightly like foreigners here with so many Canadians and Americans! I caught me self saying something with a slight Texas drawl today... Needless to say I was quite upset by this!! WE'RE IN NZ for crying out loud!! plus I've only been here a day! :O Be warned... there is a very strong possibility that I'll come back with a strong American tang with slight German inflections!

Anyway... God is soo good!! after an interesting night which included my alarm going off at 2.30 am... and being woken up by a cow strolling past our cottage in the early hours of the morning (haha the joys of living in farmy areas!) we had an awesome morning! We all came into the meeting room to find the leaders involved in an EPIC worship session! So we spent the next half an hour just full on praising God! It was so cool... God got me straight away and I had tears running down my face just overcome with the joy of the Lord... God's going to do big things on this course...it's going to be awesome!

The rest of the day was spent doing kind of orientation type things until this evening when all the leaders shared their testimonies with us all. They were all so open and honest and so inspiring each with a massive love and heart for god and others. They then announced that we all have to share our life stories over the next few days aswell!! WHAT!?? So basically tommorow I've got to share my heart... fears and insecurities and everything to about 30 strangers... a TAD nerve wrecking but I'm so sure that God will bless this :)

So yeah :) that's pretty much what has been going on! Feeling excited and I'm not going to lie, a tad overwhelmed by what's to come! But God's got it in control :) and is amazing!

Love all you friends and family and church family back in Welly!
Peace out!