Limestone Island

This Wednesday for CHEW we went over to Limestone Island. It was awesome!

We met the ranger around 10am take his boat across to the channel to the Island. Limestone Island is a reserve; they have worked really hard over the years to get the island cleared of pests and make it a place to bread kiwi and other animals, insects, and plants that need to be protected. They have even gotten rid of all the ants except one kind. There are still a few pests on the island that they are still working on getting rid of.









After two trips the whole group was on the island and, Ranger gave us a history of the island. It is truly a fascinating history you can read all about the island here http://www.limestoneisland.org.nz/ The island was orignally Matakohe Island when the Maori were settled on it. The Maori had kumara plants all over the island. After the Maori the island was used as a cement factory which is what all the ruins are from. When the cement factory was abandoned and starting to fall down the air force came in a bombed the site so that it would just be rubble and less dangerous. Once our history lesson was complete, the Ranger took us on a tour of the island and showed us all about the traps and things they do on the island. He has only been living on the island a month but anyone can tell he truly loves it there!





We went up to the site of the Pa (moari settleing). It was beautiful from the top! It is always amazing to see Whangarei from a different angle and from the island it was amazing! We went to the ruins of the old cement factory, and he even showed us how he finds the Kiwi’s on the island.



Pa Site











finding Kiwi's


Kiwi egg

It was definitely the best CHEW that we have had and everyone really enjoyed the day even with the heat.

Where is your foundation?

Sunday night I went with my friend Brittany to Reality LA. Through Tim's message and worship I was radically reminded of the Lord’s provision and faithfulness to be the strength in our weakness and work all things together for good to those who love God.

I have been radically rocked this week! The Lord is breaking me and teaching me a lot at this time. At Reality Tim was teaching out of Hosea 8 and talking about our foundation and what it is found in. Every foundation that we try and build on will fail and crumble. When our foundation is in Christ when the waves come we will be able to stand. It’s cool because the last few weeks the Lord has been reminding me where my foundation is and who I am.

The Lord never promises easy roads and no storms, but He does promise to get us through them. The Lord is teaching me that in the biggest way right now than I have ever experienced.

So while I am honestly hating life, hurting a lot, and feeling like I am going to fall apart at any moment. I know that because my foundation is in the Lord, I will be able to get through it and He has a plan through this storm. The Lord keeps telling me “I got this, I am in control, and I will hold you together. Just keep your eyes fixed on ME.”

There is no where else I can lean and nothing else I can do but lean on Him.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

The study is a must listen too!

Refuge girls blog

This year we (some of the high school leaders) decided to start a girls blog and read through the Bible in 62 weeks and blog about it everyday. While this is a huge challenge for me I am also growing a lot and it's only been a week. You can check out the blog and out reading schedule at refugegirls.tumblr.com

I got a job (kind of)

So I am now a writter for examiner.com! My title is Santa Ana Family Examiner.

I will be writting articles on everything that has to do with family. My first article was just published it's on tips to make a better less frustrating gingerbread house! Everyone should go read it! I get paid based on the traffic of my articles so the more people that read them and are refered to my articles the better I get paid!

Also everyone should thing about becoming an examiner! it's fun and you can write on almost anything!

Here is the link to my first article

http://www.examiner.com/family-in-santa-ana/10-tips-for-making-a-better-less-frustrating-gingerbread-house

Being a Bondservant

I have been trippin out on the idea of being a bondservant and what that means lately!

Last Wednesday night we started the book of Romans at Refuge! So far it has been such a blessing and I can't wait to see what else the Lord does through the book. The book starts out with saying "Paul, a bondservant of the the Lord." I was listening to Brit Merrick's study through the book of Romans and he took a full study just on the what a bondservant is. Tim Chaddick also has an amazing study on bondservants when he went through the book of James. I taught about a year ago to a group of teenagers on what a bondservant is and what it means. All that to say I have learned so much in the past on it and recently it has come back up in my mind alot.

Jake is now teaching Refuge on Sunday nights which is awesome. So as we prayed about what book he should start with the students we decided the Lord was leading to James. As a result of doing James we started talking about what a bondservant is and what that means for us.

A bondservant is a willing servant. One who decides after the time of serving for six years decides that his master has treated him well and in turn wants to continue to serve the master. God did this for us. He gives us everything we need and accepts us as family. All we have to do is to choose him and lay down our "freedom" to serve Him.

There are so many examples of people throughout scripture that have given up their "freedom" and decided to follow the Lord with everything they have.

How cool would it be to be known as a bondservant of the Lord!! to be known as someone that everyday wakes up and thinks it is no longer I who Live but Christ we lives in me. That's what I want and yet it's so hard for me to actually humble myself and do.

England update

As I am Number one... horrible at remembering to take pictures and Number two.... horrible at making time to update my blog

Here is a link to a bunch of pictures from our trip also if you go to my facebook you can see a bunch of pictures!! cfteam2010.blogspot.com

Sorry

The whole trip was great! The Lord really did a work in my heart and in many others!!
Thanks for the prayers!

First Few Days

Here we are in England. Our cottages are so cute(I'll put picts up later). The area we are in is so beautiful I would move here!! It's all farmland. I went for a run this morning and ended up running behind some sheep which you don't get in california!! The day (2 days) of travel were really long and exhausting! but we finally arrived.

Yesterday we went out to a few different cities and handed out fliers and talked to people about the festival and Jesus. Last night a few people went to a Pub in town and did an open mic kind of thing. I stayed back with a group and prayed for the team that was out. Everyone that went said they had an awesome time!

Today 7 girls and i went to the festival sight and did a lot of organization stuff and administrative stuff. I love getting to do that kind of thing on missions trips. I had a really good time.