Rainy Day's and the Holidays

Christmas Decorations on our door!
Beach at Rakatuara Farm
Anna, Sam and I at a Waterfall in Torlesse
We spent the past week up in a little town called Kaikoura on a farm called Rakataura. We slept family style on mats in a Marae (a meeting house), luckily no one snored to loud. We are in the phase of preperation for leaving on Outreach. On the farm a wonderful Maori Pastor, George, came and spoke to us as we lounged on our sleeping mats(traditional teaching method of Maori's). We had the privilage of learning much about the language of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand and a little on breaking down belief systems of indigenous people groups around the world.
"Ask God where His fingerprints are in differences." -George
He taught us that God really has placed ideas and beliefs that speak of the Gospel message if we only look deep enough into others beliefs. Christian missions has gained a bad rap for a lot of the culture that has been destroyed upon 'white' people coming into aboriginal people groups. This was not God's intention but he created all people groups to be celebrated, in Heaven ^'26The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.' -Revelations 21:26 That does not mean transforming cultures to the western ways of Christianity but celebrating the differences of music, heritage, dress, language, food, arts and such and yet bringing them Jesus and the simple truth of who He is and what He has done.
The 4 days we spent on the farm were rainy and allowed a lot of time for reading, thinking, playing games and getting into Holiday spirit (by that I mean we watched The Holiday, Snoopy's Christmas, and The Grinch Cartoon). God also gave us a gift in spite of the rain of being able to see Orca (killer) whales and Hector dolphins and seals (although they are always around). We saw them from the window after breakfast and sprinted to the beach to watch them gracefully flow up and down in the water. It was God's Beauty at hand.
The weekend before Sam, Anna and I took a trip to the Torolesse to a hut for a real backcountry experience. We had a lot of fun exploring and scree sliding (to move downward on loose rock debris covering a slope).
We are rapidly approaching our departure date to Bali, Indonesia. We leave on the 14th of December. We will spend 3 weeks in Bali (that means Christmas and New Years). We then head off to Cambodia until March. Most of us here on base are feeling a twinge of homesickness as Christmas is approaching. Once our team leaves base on the 14th, it may be the last time we see some of our fellow students on the backpacker and Father's Heart schools which adds to the blues.
This week we are playing Angels and Mortals (a version of secret santa) and we put up some Christmas decorations. It makes the mood a little lighter. Also, thanks to my mom for sending some Christmas cookies to share!
Anyways, Prayers are greatly needed now that we are getting ready to head off again, ecspecially for safe traveling, good health, spiritual strength, and positive relationships.

~Thanks for continuing to read my blog and for prayer! It helps more then you know!~