"BULA" Fjij

I always knew that I wanted to travel on my way home from New Zealand. I had tried a couple different options but none seemed to be coming together and then randomly near the end of semester I heard some girls were going to Fiji and after looking up prices, I decided to go with them. It was a bit of a crazy decision but one of the best things I could have done. The trip was suppose to be about relaxing and getting a tan before we all headed home but once we got home we all knew that the theme of the whole trip was 'God Provides'.

Since we all booked our flights separately, we arrived in Fiji at different times and even on different dates. The first two to arrive were Caroline and Verana. We really had no clue where we were going to stay or where we wanted to go. I had some suggestions from someone I had stayed with in New Zealand but that was about it.

The Fiji airport is super small and when Caroline and Verana got off the plane they were overwhelmed with what to do next not to mention the fact that they had just spent hours crying because they left the day we all had to say our goodbyes to people. They ended up meeting a travel agent at the airport and found out she was a Christian. She helped them figure out where to stay, what we should do on our trip and talked with them about her faith. It was a HUGE blessing and they were even able to use internet in her office to get a hold of me in New Zealand. We found out if it hadn't been for her, we would have ended up going to the rainy side of the island and would have missed out on so much.

This is the four of us waiting for the last member of our little Fiji crew to arrive. In the picture it's me, Verana from Germany, Maxine from Canada and Caroline from Denmark. We are holding up 4 because we ended up waiting 4 hours in the airport because Christina's plane was delayed and by this time we were over waiting in the airport for people.

This is the "hostel" we stayed at on the main island. I put hostel in quotes because it was really more like a house. It was so random and actually reminded me of Africa quite a bit but it was a huge blessing to stay there because the people that owned it were Christians and it only costed $15 for a night which included 3 meals a day that were amazing! The best part was all the randomness about it that we all got a good laugh at.

Fiji was so beautiful, of course. This is on the mainland as we were walking to the beach near our hostel the first day I was there.

This is us chilling in the "backyard" of our hostel. It was a random yard where they would cook sometimes and had laundry up for all the workers that were there and then some chairs which we sat in to soak up some sun.

Here's the room we stayed in. I would like to point out that my area is way cleaner than Caroline's area. It was so fun to all stay in one room.

We went to town one day to buy water before we went to Mana Island where we stayed for about four days. You can't drink the water there and they charge a lot for bottled water so we stocked up!

I was the only American on the trip so I was the only one who appreciated how funny this was. It was basically a dollar store type shop with clothes.

This is the beach near our hostel. It was funny because the travel agent we met said Fijians think this beach is gross because it doesn't have white sand like the smaller islands do. I on the other hand thought it was beautiful! I wanted to soak up as much beach time as possible before heading back to the midwest!

Another picture of Nadi beach on the mainland. The weather was really wonderful but I guess for Fijians it was winter because they are still in the southern hemisphere so while we were laying out on the beach people were wearing hats and jackets.

We took a boat to Mana Island from Nadi and it was the scariest boat ride I have ever been on! It took about an hour and it was raining so the driver was looking out the side window because he couldn't see out of the front and one of the engines kept acting up so both workers were yelling back and forth at each other in Fijian. Let's just say I was doing a lot of praying! Once we got to the island, the hostel staff took our luggage for us and sang us a Fijian welcome song. The word "Bula" in Fijian is hello so everywhere you go you hear it said and are always saying it.

Once again we stayed at a random hostel. This is where we ate meals each day. It was funny to be inside but still eating at picnic tables with sand under your feet.

Here's Caroline showing off the lovely bathroom. We were lucky because our travel agent called ahead and we had two rooms (one for 3 of us and one for 2 of us) because usually they put people in huge dorms with up to 36 people!

One day we went to explore the island and we walked around the whole thing in 2 HOURS! It was so beautiful and everywhere you looked you saw the ocean. Caroline and I found a huge seashell that is now my jewelry holder.

One the beach were "Souvenir Shops" which were these little shacks that people would set out necklaces and other stuff on each day.

One day it was really rainy so the hostel staff decided to show the movie 'Castaway' with Tom Hanks because it was filmed on one of the islands nearby. So we just moved the picnic tables and voila, you have yourself a theatre.

For cups the hostel used old Starbucks cups which I thought was hilarious. Merry Christmas??

This is Verana, Christina and myself making jewelry out of coconuts. I made a cute little bird but the saws you had to use were intense so my bird was more abstract than I planned.

This is the view we had each day at the hostel. It was Right on the ocean but with an island as small as it was, everything is Right on the ocean.

One of the days we were there we went to see the school on the island. The village that is there is made up of Fijians that work at one of the two hostels or the resort on the island. The kids at the school were so cute and we loved visiting them!

One of the coolest things we got to see was a night church service. We heard the music from our hostel and went to go check it out and it was so amazing. We couldn't understand anything because it was in Fijian but you could see so much joy in the people. They performed dances and then the pastor brought it when he gave the message. They were so kind to us as visitors and it was neat to be sitting by the ocean on a large blue tarp worshipping with other believers in a different language. God is so good.

The last night I was on the island, the staff did a fire dance show.

Another thing we did in Fiji was snorkeling (which I kept calling scuba diving by accident) which was incredible! I had never gone before and I was blown away with all the cool colors and fish I got to see. We had so much fun and took a boat out to where we snorkeled and when we were coming back the sun was setting and I felt like I was in a movie!

Some of the girls I went to Fiji with, I knew better than others but after all that we went through and experienced, I feel like we are bonded for life. It was an amazing time to reflect on all that God had taught me and done while in New Zealand and to get excited about what is to come. Each day was an adventure and God was so faithful. He provided in so many obvious ways and I really needed that reassurance as I traveled home. I hadn't felt that close to God in a while and it was so amazing to be reminded that even when we don't feel God or see Him working, He is always there.

Leaving

Wow. Leaving Bible School. Leaving people I grew to love. Leaving a country that is beyond beautiful. It was NOT an easy last couple of days to say the least. Monavale campus had become my home and I was devastated with the idea of leaving but also had a mix of emotions because I really missed people back here in Omaha.

This is the sign at the end of the driveway for the bible school that you can see from the main road. I saw this sign every time I would come back to school from Cambridge or a trip or even when I was finishing a run.

This is a picture of the dorms on one side of the main buildings. Each of the sliding glass doors in a room for four people. I actually never lived on this side but walked down the hallways countless of times. I loved the community living at school. I learned so much from people and miss that closeness.

This is a picture of the view outside the unit (or apartment type thing) Megan and I lived in. I LOVED when the sun was at this level in the sky and would create the coolest colors of yellows, rich greens and oranges. It was such a calming part of the day.

Here's my desk in the office that I shared with the RAs, Jen and Jesse. This is where I did most of my internship work and loved working on the projects I was able to. It was also fun to office with Jen and Jesse and had lots of great conversations.

This is one of the views of the Homestead at Monavale. I loved sitting on the porch and journalling and looking out at the fields, mountains and gardens. The homestead had so many incredible old rooms we could hang out in.

This is kind of random but it's a picture of the cross roads of Cambridge Rd (the road the school was off of) and Parallel Rd where I would run. I ran pretty often and since the school is kind of out town there's only one path to run every time so I got pretty familiar with Parallel Rd. God spoke to me so many times and each time I would get out of school, I felt like I would have a perspective shift and was refreshed. I loved looking at the mountains in the distance and on the way to Parallel Rd there were fields of sheep and cows. Sometimes I would run with people and I have so many memories on that road.

This is my bed and me in the final stages of packing. I had packed so many times before but this was the first time I wasn't coming back to school so it had a different vibe that before. I gave so many things away because I didn't want to overpack and didn't bring that much with me to begin with. It was good to have something to do that last couple of days like pack because it helped take your mind off of leaving.

This is where Megan spent most of her time at school since she was the chef intern and because we were friends, it is also where I spent most of my time. It was also the only place that had brewed coffee opposed to instant. Megan and I met before I went to ABS when she first arrived for her internship and our friendship grew as the semester went on and also when we became roommates for the last 10 weeks of school.

This is a picture of the unit that Megan and I lived in. It was so fun to be roommates and I loved having a bit more space to hang out and talk. I will never forget the numerous conversations we had on the couches and know that God had an amazing purpose for us to be roommates. The unit was still smaller than a regular apartment but it was the perfect size for us. I loved our little home.

Leaving is still kind of a blur to me even now. The last day we had a nice breakfast but we were all in tears from saying goodbye to people. Megan and I were the last the leave because we were taken to the airport by Jen and Jesse the next day so the last day was full of goodbyes that happened about every hour. It was so emotionally draining. I cried and cried. Last time I had to say goodbyes it was hard because I was saying goodbye to so many friends but this time was also hard because I had to say goodbye to staff and even the whole experience of being at school.

It seems so crazy to me that a year ago I was so nervous about leaving and at times even annoyed with God that He would have me go to New Zealand because of all I was leaving behind. Going to bible school is by far the riskiest thing that I have ever done in my faith and also the most rewarding. I loved being there and having the time and space to really think about what I believe and why. I think everyone should do at least a semester at bible school. I know that with God each year is a different and new adventure and even though it's hard to believe that my life could have even more adventures, I know that New Zealand is not the end-all-be-all experience, but it will be hard to top.

One thing that I think about when it comes to traveling is prayer. My prayers when I'm stepping out into the unknown and am nervous about traveling are so rich and real. The closeness I feel with God is incredible because I don't have a plan B. I can't imagine my life without the people and experience I had last year. I will be forever changed and can't wait to see what God has in store for me in this next chapter of life. Thank you for all your prayers and support that gave me the opportunity of a lifetime.

Graduation

At the end of each semester at bible school, there is a graduation dinner and graduation. Since I was at Capernwray for two semesters, this was my second of both. The grad dinner is a fun night where we dress up and play games and be the goofy people we are. Last semester's theme was "Robin Hood" and this semester's was "Decades" so each family group was assigned a different decade they dressed up in. My family's decade was the 1980's which I was more familiar with than most of the other students in my family.

Here is Rachelle, Caroline, me and Heather at grad dinner. It was so fun to see what everyone did for their decade and Heather and I had a really fun time getting ready together.

This is me with Megan and Jen. Megan was the chef intern this semester and is from Colorado. We ended up being roommates for the second half of the semester and would stay up talking almost every night! Jen and her husband, Jesse, are from Canada and were the RAs for the semester and lived in the Homestead. The three of us girls would talk almost every morning and both were amazing encouragements to me and inspired me to grow deeper in love with Jesus with their lives.

Here I am with Anneloor. She is on staff as the House Manager and was my discipleship leader my first semester. We instantly connected and became friends. She offered countless encouragements and advice when I needed it. She also would give me organizing projects on work day because she knew how much I love to organize and we both were kind of geeky when it comes to cleaning.

This is me and Rachel a very very good friend of mine that I met way back last July when I first got to Capernwray. We did the first semester together and that's when God really put us in each other's lives. Next we did ABS together and our friendship grew and I think when you share an experience like that with someone, you will always be close. After Adventure Bible School, we both came back to Capernwray for internships. Rachel was the coffee shop intern and I was the graphic design intern. Once again our friendship grew and changed and saying goodbye to her was one of the hardest that I had to do. I have been so blessed to watch her grow in her relationship with God and I know we will be friends for a very long time.

This is Dawood Latif and his wife Judy. Dawood works with Gideons International and I met them last semester. They are wonderful people and at the end of the year I spent a relaxing weekend with them at their house.

This is Suz and Dave Bruce who were my billets last semester for ministry week so I was able to live with them for a week and get to know the amazing people they are. It was an overwhelming blessing to continue our friendship over the year. They helped me plan my two week break first semester and then went with ABS for one of our trips. When I started my internship, I went to the same church as them and got to go to a few of their small group meetings which were always so refreshing. I was so blessed to find such an amazing Kiwi couple to have as friends.

This is Cloudy (Claudia) and me at graduation. She is on staff with ABS and we became friends even before that when she would stay at Monavale first semester. She has been through so much and God has shown up in her life in so many incredible ways. I learned SO much from her and her life continues to inspire me.

This is Heather who I went on ABS with. She ended up staying on for the rest of the semester and I was so glad because we got to joke around and hang out after ABS. She is amazing and super down to earth and we would have so much fun being complete nerds together. One of my favorite memories with her is rolling down hills randomly one night at school.

It's hard to believe that God put so many wonderful people in my life at school and this is one of them. This is Esther Print. She's originally from America but married a Kiwi and has lived in New Zealand ever since. She was my discipleship leader the second semester and blew me away each week with the wisdom she has and love that pours out of her. No question was ever dumb and she takes her relationship with Jesus so sincerely.

This is Caroline from Denmark, Heather from Canada and me. Caroline and I were roommates for about a month when I got back from ABS and Heather and I were in the same family group. They both are amazing and we share a rare form of humor that most people don't get. I have never laughed as hard as I did with these girls and loved hanging out with them. They both did ABS after I did and I got to go and hang out at the ABS lodge a couple weekends with them to help out and it was a huge blessing to go and see them.

I'm going to refrain from making this a giant blog post about every person that impacted me and that I grew to care about from school because that would be a very very long post. Graduation was very different the second time around because I was saying goodbye to so much and to so many people. My mind can't handle how God could bless me the way He did with the community I was able to be a part of and His grace that He shows me.

I'm Home!

Well, I've officially been home for a month now and it's hard to believe! Life has been happening at a very fast pace but I wanted to still update my blog about graduation, leaving and my time in Fiji. Also, even though this blog is about my time in New Zealand, I will still be updating it about my adventures after New Zealand here in Omaha because God is still teaching me tons and continuing to challenge me and bless me.

Less than a month

Wow. As lame as it sounds, time really does fly. It feels like just yesterday that I was packing up my things in Omaha and getting ready to come to New Zealand. Now, I only have a few weeks left here and it's hard to wrap my brain around it.

I think one overarching theme of my time here is God's faithfulness. I was SO intimidated by the thought of living in a different country. I had to really trust God when I quit 2 jobs and moved out of an amazing apartment not to mention leaving behind close family and friends. I had no clue how I would ever have enough money to come. I wasn't sure why God wanted me to go to bible school and you can guess my general hesitations towards Adventure Bible School.

But God provided again and again. He allowed me to continue graphic design with freelance and then opening up the door for my internship here. He provided ways to keep in touch with people back home (I will now permanently remember my talk'n'save phone card pin number) and provided good friends here at school. I also was kind of a part of a family over Christmas when I went down south and stayed with my friend Esther's family. God floored me with how He provided monetarily for me coming. I seriously still get overwhelmed when I think about how many people gave for me to come.

I still wonder sometimes "why". Why did God have this planned for me? Couldn't I have learned what I have learned here back home? I don't think so.

God made me and knows how best to teach me what He wants me to learn. He knows I can talk until I'm blue in the face about trusting God but that's not trusting God. Trusting God is doing what He asks us to do when He asks us to do it. I've had to walk by faith by coming here and not just talk about faith.

I also have seen how much I had to learn about loving others. (I still have a lot to learn about loving others). Back home, I thought if I was nice to someone, I was loving them. Most of my close friends and the people I did life with were easy to love. We had similar interest and they generally understood me. But that's not the kind of love that God calls us to. The love I showed back home was done on my own strength. It didn't push me outside my comfort zone and didn't really push me to rely on God. At Bible School it's very different. You are in community pretty much 24/7 and with people from different cultures and with hugely different backgrounds. I saw that I use to blame personality differences or circumstances for me and someone not being friends but here I've seen, I'm also to blame. I've seen how opening up when God asks you to, doesn't always mean you're going to get hurt. And loving someone goes way beyond being nice, it means opening up your life to them and walking along side them.

And lastly, I've learned to let go. Ok, so this one is by far the hardest so I probably should phrase it that I'm learning to let go. When you live so far away from people that you care about you really have to trust God with taking care of them. I've seen how sometimes I try and fix people or control my circumstances but God is showing me that I can't. It seems so simple in theory but so hard to put into practice. But, when I get glimpses of it, it is so freeing. I believe that with the power of the Holy Spirit, I can live a life free of worry and anxiety. One that is open to the adventures God has for me and ultimately to glorify Him.

So the plan for right now is that I'm done with school on July 1st. I then fly out to Fiji with a few girls from school and stay there until the 6th. Then I fly back to Omaha and get home on the 6th because of crossing the international dateline.

I have a few prayer request for the next month:

- Praise for all that God has done over this last year

- Prayer that I would finish well here at school

- Prayer for safe travels and a good time in Fiji

- Prayer for a job when I get home

Thanks again for reading, praying and supporting me in this adventure!

Explore. Dream. Discover

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do that by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

This quote meant so much to me when I first realized I was heading to New Zealand. I was just reading it again today and I love the last three words. "Explore. Dream Discover."

Explore: There's so much more to life than routine and comfort. Exploring is going outside and looking at things differently. It's trying new things even if you epicly fail at them. I have explored so many new things here. I love going for runs and just taking time to get my perspective back when I see the mountains and how amazing nature is.

Dream: Well we all pretty much know about this one but I just wrote out some goals today and realize I don't do it enough. There not the kind of "if-I-don't-get-it-done-I'll-freak" goals but I just took time to dream about who I want to become and what I want to be the focus of my future.

Discover: The coolest discovery is ourself. It's also the scariest. I have discovered how much I need Jesus EVERYDAY over these last 9 months in New Zealand. Yes, I have seen amazing landscapes and natural beauty beyond anything I could imagine, but the stuff I have come to see in myself and the fact that God has so much grace for me, is the single most overwhelming thing I have discovered here.

ABS

At the very end of January, I started my 6 weeks of Adventure Bible School. It's fair to say, I have been the most nervous about this 6 weeks since signing up for the two courses last year. Adventure Bible School is all about trust. You know that going into it, you'll be doing lots of activities (adventures) but you don't know exactly what. They don't tell you what you'll be doing each day until you're actually doing and when you go on trips they give you a packing list that never seems to be enough when you look at it for a trip that you don't know how long it will be. They never let you bring your watch on trips and lots of other things most of us would consider necessary. I knew it would be physically challenging but I wasn't as prepared for it to be as emotionally and spiritually challenging as it was. Overall, I am So trilled to completed to course and I can honestly say, I'll never be the same after it.

The first day of ABS we got dropped off by some bikes and we had to bike to a point where we ran back to the lodge. This was before we had even been there yet. You pretty much hit the ground running (literally) on ABS.

The first week was CRAZY. The push you alot an your constantly moving. This is on a "trig" which at the summit of a mountain. The mountain is Mt. Mongatautri that's near the lodge (our home on ABS). It was about a 5 hour hike on our 2nd day.

During the hike we played a game of ninja to get to know each other better and we were waiting on one of our leader to get back.

Here is my hiking group going back to the vans after the hike.

After the hike we were taken to this guy's farm where he had 3 turkey's waiting for us to catch, kill, gut and cook. Yup, second day on ABS and we were killing turkeys for dinner. I had the fun job of gutting mine. I will say, in the end it's pretty fascinating to see REALLY where your meat comes from.

Here's me, Cloudy and Jodi. Cloudy is one of the staff and Jodi was on the last ABS and came back and did 4 weeks at Monavale where I got to know her. This ABS she came back as an intern which was cool to continue our friendship.

Here's a view of the lodge where we lived when we weren't on trips, which was not very much!

The third day on ABS we were woken up at 4am by the fire alarm and then told to get kayaks because we were going for a kayak ride!! They were sea kayaks which are 2 person and it was crazy starting off in the dark and having no clue what we were doing but by the time the sun rose it was really fun and when we dropped off the kayaks we had breakfast and off for a bike ride.

Our first trip was a sea kayak trip. We had to fit EVERYTHING for the whole trip into our kayaks which was no easy task. It was so fun kayaking everyday!

Here I am getting my stuff together before we put up our tents at our first campsite. This trip was especially big for me because I was "leader of the day" with one other student for the third day of it. We were pulled aside the night before and given coordinates of where we had to go the next day and by what time. We had to organize the schedule of the day and meals and stuff. It was crazy because me and my co-leader (a guy named Matt) had one of the most intense days of ABS to lead. We kayaked for a couple of hours, then had to portage our kayaks for an hour uphill (which the guys all agreed was the hardest thing they've ever done), then we kayaked for another couple of hours and finally portaged again but this time we put wheels under the kayak and were on a road so we just had to pull them. I learned SO much through leader of the day. I had to FULLY rely on God and learn to go-with-the-flow.

Our next trip we stayed in this woolshed. We did caving and abseiling (or repelling) which I loved! One night we went to this cave that was FULL of glowworms and sang worship songs. It's probably my favorite memory from ABS.

Here's Jodi (intern), Matt (staff), PB (staff) and James (intern) hanging out at the woolshed.

We went to this waterfall and even walked down to it and swam in it! It was SO muddy walking down and up to it and the water was so loud you couldn't hear the person next to you.

Here I come abseiling down from this natural bridge. It was So beautiful and lots of fun!

coming down...

and I made it all the way down!

Here we all are in our caving suits complete with hard hats and head lamps.

Part of caving is going through really tight passageways. When I first heard about it, I was a bit nervous but it turned out to be super fun. Here you can see my blue helmet.

Here I'm squeezing through what is called the "birth canal"

And I made it!

You get super muddy and wet in the cave and there's so much to look at! It was like be introduced to a whole new part of creation that I didn't know existed.

Here's PB (Peter Bichan) who leads ABS. He is AMAZING! I learned so much from him. Here he's teaching us about "being lights" in the darkness. I like that you can only see our headlamps in this picture.

Here we are after coming out of the cave and crossing the stream to get back to the vans.

Here's my group after we got done caving.

This is one of the lounge rooms that I spent a lot of time in when we were back at the lodge journalling and processing all that I would learn on our trips.

This was a challenge to make a bridge out of random materials they gave us.... it was really hard and really fun

Here I am helping hold it together as we all had to cross over it before lunch time

Here it's starting to fall apart.... this is like 10 mins after completing it

and after about 15 mins it was totally falling apart. Apparently we are the first group to have our bridge fall apart so quickly. It was a disaster but so much fun.

The next day we had a similar challenge. We had to get into 3 groups and build a raft that could be carried and could fit all of us on it. We were then told we were going to have to use our raft to go down a gorge and then float down a stream to a campsite where we would be spending the night. It was really nerveracking to build something when we had no clue what we were doing.

Here's my team carrying our raft down to the water. We used 2 palettes and big rubber tubs.

Here's me, Emily and Christina getting ready for the big adventure

This is my team on our "test run". We ended up flipping so when we actually went down the stream we flipped the thing upside down and used it that way. it was WAY more stable

This is us at our campsite. We were SO cold that night and most of us didn't bring sleeping bags so we didn't get a lot of sleep. Part of this trip was the leaders left (by sneaking away) at night so we had to piece together what information they had given us to get back to the lodge by 12:30pm on our own.

All in all, this was a really hard trip. The next day, people's attitudes weren't great and it caused a lot of tension. We did make it back in time but I was so emotionally exhausted by the time we got back.

Here I am at the top of a 23 meter rock climb. I LOVED rock climbing here.

This is the same climb just more showing how high it was.

This means nothing to you, but this picture brings up SO many memories for me. One night when we were at PB's house we each drew a letter before dinner. I drew an 'R' and some others drew as 'S'. The R group was the 'Rice' group while the others were the 'Steak' group.

Since I was in the Rice group, we had our dinner outside on the porch. We ate, you guessed it, rice. and that was it. We cooked it on a camp cooker and didn't have utensils so we had to use our hands. We sat in a big circle and while it was cooking we played games and tried to make the most of it.

The Steak group got steak, and tons of other food. They cooked the steak right next to our group and weren't suppose to talk to us. They got dessert and soda (we got water) and it was hard not to get jealous. You could tell they felt bad and it was eye-opening to see this is how much of the world is. Some living in abundance while others get barely anything.

This is the rice group doing the steak group's dishes. Another part of our groups responsibilities.

This is the rice group. Even though our group missed out in a lot of ways we actually had way more fun than the steak group that night. We played tons of games that were hilarious.

After dinner the "experiment" continued. The steak group got to go back to the lodge to sleep while we were given cardboard boxes and newspapers to walk to where we would sleep.... which was under a bridge in Cambridge. It was crazy. This is me and Heather and we shared some boxes that night but were SO COLD! We barely got any sleep and our backs hurt so much the next day. It was incredible to get a glimpse into what homeless people experience every day.

I think what made the whole thing even more crazy was this was shortly after the earthquake in Christchurch and for some people, they had just lost everything. I will never forget all that I learned this night, nor do I ever want to.

This is on the last day of a 4 day backpaking trip we went on. It was really hard the 3rd and 4th day. We hiked about 6-10 hours each day and one day it was mostly uphill the whole time. I jammed my finger when I fell as I was crossing a river which was not fun and it still is a little sore which is just another fun reminder of ABS.

The thing about this trip was we had no clue how long it was. We had kind of figured out with the amount of food we had that we were going home on the fourth day but then Matt, one of the leaders, told us we were meeting the vans in town to get more supplies and then heading to our next destination and we ALL believed him. When we got down to the vans that morning and PB told us we were going to the lodge we all freaked out. Some people were even crying they were so happy since it had been such a grueling hike.

This is our white-water kayaking trip. These are our tents that we used on all of our trips and you can see, we got really good at setting them up each time. It's crazy because they are totally open but since we went in the summer, alot of the time it was really nice to have a breeze. I never thought I would like camping like this but it wasn't bad at all.

Here's Matt working with a guy in the lake near the lodge and helping him learn to roll. Matt is the leader who worked with me the most with rolling and with being comfortable in a kayak. I had a really hard time with being upside down under water. Matt was super helpful and I even started crying I was so scared when I was learning. It seems dumb but it's that mental block that you have to get passed. God taught me so much about trust and not fearing through kayaking.

Here is my team going to the drop off point to go white water kayaking.

The water where we were was SO blue! Although I was nervous at first with kayaking I really enjoyed myself.

Here I am! I HAD to have a picture of my kayaking after all the ups and downs I went through with it. This is actually just after I tipped and ended up exiting my kayak so I had to get all the water out my boat and get back in. I only tipped twice (once each day) but that mostly had to do with the fact that I had a big kayak and I took the easy ways down the rapids...but still the fact that I did it and enjoyed myself was accomplishment enough :)

This is a random picture of me cooking with Christina (our one Danish girl). I loved helping in the kitchen!

This is a picture showing off my sweet face FULL of bug bites. It was after our solo trip. We each got dropped off on different parts of these farms near the lodge and we could only take a bible, notebook and pen for reading stuff. We of course couldn't take a watch and some food for 40 hours of being by ourself. We also took 2 tarps and some string to build a shelter which I wasn't very good at. This is the HARDEST trip for me. I had a hard time not knowing what time it was and it rained the whole second day and poured that night. I put bug spray on my face at night (because I definitely wasn't sleeping) but they still attacked me. I can look back on it now and be thankful for it but when it was over I was an emotional wreck. God used it to teach me a lot about myself and about using everyday as an opportunity to praise Him. I feel like I understand Paul in Romans when he talks about being content in want and in need.

Happy birthday to me!! (and Zander, a kid who shared my bday with me) We got surprised with cakes after we went indoor rock climbing!!

Super fun bolder room

Heather, Rachel and myself on my bday. I would say I was closest with these girls on ABS

Who could as for a better bday party right? Haha, this was the kid part of the rock climbing place and it was SO FUN! I really did feel like I was a little kid having a really cool bday party.

This is our last night on ABS. We had a formal dinner and got all dressed up. It was really nice technically was still my birthday :) After dinner we had one more surprise where we put wetsuits on and lifejackets (2, one on top and one like a diaper) and floated down a stream at night that had glowworms all around. It was also a clear sky so we could see TONS of stars. It was the perfect ending to ABS.

The ABS crew with our t-shirts and Matt our leader who also wanted to be in the picture. Matt was really really cool and it was his last ABS because him and his wife moved back to Austrailia sortly after ABS was over. I'm really glad to have had him as a leader.

Another fun thing we did the last week was a mini triathlon. It was so cool to push myself and I was in WAY better shape since we did morning exercises everyday for 6 weeks on top of all the other activites we had.

I'm so thankful that I could have done ABS. It was physically, emotionally and spiritually stretching but I learned so much. I was humbled over and over and I grew so much in my relationship with God. All that being said, I'm also glad to be back at Monavale :)