Chahoo!

ok, here's some people:

This is from the left top: Sammy, Sadie Anne, Kyla, Ben Vickery
Then me and Pete Alexander

Ben Vickery. You cannot see it in this picture, but he is a lot like Taylor danaher and Johnathan Rhodes. Its wild. He is also a really good artist, and he drew the word 'Jesus' in Celtic runes, its amazing.

its really hard to get pictures of people. we are always busy. but we finished end of term cleaning, and we are pretty much on holiday now. in 2 weeks the next term starts. while we are on holiday, I'm going to be going tramping (hiking) and working at a youth camp with the Pratt family. Mr. Pratt is in charge of the workshop, and I've worked a lot with the two oldest boys. OK, until next time.

cheers!

-Charlie

I haven't forgotten about this blog!

Wow, i haven't been able to access the blog for a while. but luckily I'm getting it on the list of approved sites, so hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly. lots has been happening, work has been good, and the food hasn't been too bad. ;-)

the trip here was fantastic. at check-in for my flight, i met a guy who was headed to NZ on the same flights as me. so we hung out during our 12 hour lay-over in LA. we went to Venice beach, and i put my feet in the pacific ocean for the first time. then we met a christian girl who was headed to NZ with YWAM so that was pretty cool. then on the flight over, i was sitting next to a christian guy from Auckland. so THAT was really cool. and then i said goodbye to all of them and took a flight to palmy where i was picked up. thank God i got here on Friday, because the weekend is usually relaxed. we went to the beaches on the west coast. beautiful. they say only 1 day in 30 is it clear like that. and it "just so happened" that it was the day after i got there. God is good.

the people are great, we have a lot of fun. we have one more week before holiday, and after holiday the next term begins. I'll be with the Pratt's helping at a youth camp for most of the two week break. so that should be a blast.

there are some people here at the center who came from Australia, and they need a lot of prayer.

this place was beautiful.

there was a freakin seal just hangin' out.

Cool Caves.


some of the waves that were crashing were way more amazing than this one.


people were fishing out there...


and caught a shark!


Surf shop


Mt. Doom.


cool rock


Sadie Anne with a Starfish




i'll put up some pictures of people when i can get them on my flash drive.

wetas can hurt you, they say never let them touch your bare skin. we actually found one while clearing some woods, it was small, and i held it with my work gloves. they aren't very common.

two things i have realized since being here: i feel like my whole life has prepared me for this trip, and this trip will prepare me for my whole life.

and i have never been more comfortable getting out of my comfort zone!

Oh, and Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!

Cheers!

We Fear The Weta

On account of me doing grounds keeping while I am in New Zealand, I thought it would be prudent to do some reconnaissance on the potentially hazardous. Positive aspects of working in New Zealand include:
-Only 2 poisonous spiders (and one is an endangered species)
-No poisonous snakes (unfortunately, there are no snakes at all)
-Poison ivy is rare (woohoo-haroo!)
-It is a pretty safe place.

I did however stumble across something of peculiar interest. Some of you may recall a particular film industry related company called Weta Workshops. They did work for The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc... And one of their trademark symbols is an cricket-looking insect. I recently found out that that cricket-looking insect is, in fact, a weta... and they get pretty big. They can also bite you, and while not poisonous, they can still hurt. A lot.

I am not actually very concerned about this, but it serves as a good analogy to the things bigger than insects. So many things, unseen, un-experienced, before. Today I leave for Arlington, and tomorrow for New Zealand. Maybe everything will go as planned, I dunno. But the one thing I AM sure of is that I am not in control of anything! And that's a good thing. Not a bad thing.

And I'm sure I will try to avoid the angry wetas. But evidently, according to the picture, they don't just go around biting people, it is sitting so nicely on the person's hand. ooo, behold another metaphor: the things we usually fear, or worry about, aren't really that important in light of eternity. Unless of course the weta on her hand is dead, in which case they still could be ferocious, biting, beasties with anger management problems. And in that case my analogy is pretty much hosed no matter how you look at it.

oh well, I'm not too worried about the wetas. but i probably will still try to avoid them if i can...