Amurrrrrrca.

Ethan Says the Darndest Things.

When I was doing my student teaching, I was so good about recording all the hilarious things that my students did.  Now that I am away from the classroom, I may not have heaps of stories about my students (even though I have a couple funny ones from Sunday school)... BUT I DO live with a three year old, so that makes up for it...

Introducing, 'Ethan Says (And Does) the Darndest Things':

• At breakfast one morning, Ethan just looks and me and says with a straight face, "Muggle."
• "Beth, you're so silly!" He pretty much says this to me when I am acting 100% normal... for example: when I am just sitting, when I am reading, when I am doing the dishes, when I am making a cup of tea, etc.  He never actually tells this to me when I am actually being silly or goofy.
• "I am going to see my mum, because she's a lovely girl..." "Oh, you think your mum's a lovely girl?" "Yes, because she has breasts and wears lots of skirts..."
• "Do you know what I do before I go to bed? I jump on my bed.  I jump up and see God."
• Even though Ethan is toilet trained, you still definitely have to watch him when he goes to the bathroom, because he'll unroll an entire roll of toilet paper and put it in the toilet.  I think he's gone through about 15 rolls because of this issue alone.
• "I want to pray for Jesus and for tele (television)..."
• My mom sent Ethan a package of play-doh in the mail... when I gave it to him and after he opened it, he screamed his head off yelling, "I love Beth's Mum! AHHHHH!"
• When I walked out of my room wearing a dress, "Wow, you look really pretty!" So cute... he better keep this up when he's older!
• "What are you doing?" His go-to question for EVERYTHING.  And he won't just ask once, he asks it at least 3 times in a row.  I guess he just wants to make sure he's included in everything.
• I was trying to teach him how to play soccer, but he would just chase after the ball, pick it up, and run around holding it above his head.
• Ethan and I play with play-doh a lot when I get home from work early in the afternoons.  He'll often look at my little sculptures and ask what they are.  After I tell him, most of the time he scrunches up his face and says, "Uh... it looks weird."
• "Beth? Hold my hand please. God wants you to."
• He loves seeing pictures of himself, so whenever I take a picture of him with my camera, he quickly says, "Can I see Ethan?"
• One time, he farted super loud at the dinner table, turned and looked at me and said, "Beth!"  How is he already learning how to blame farts on other people?!
• "Are you going to eat your vegetables all up, Beth? You will grow up big and strong."  Sometimes I don't think he realizes that I am a full-grown adult who hasn't grown an inch since I was 15.
• He's walked in on me three times changing and/or showering.  I have tried explaining to him that when the door is closed, he should knock and wait till I say, "come in"... hasn't worked yet.
• "DUDE.  My tummy wants some pancakes... PANCAKES!"
• I was wearing a V-neck t-shirt the other day and I was helping Ethan change into his jim jams (pajamas).  I was leaning over trying to help him get his feet in and he literally stuck his hand down my shirt and said, "You have breasts like mummy!"
• One day, I walked out of my room and he was just standing outside my door... but then I looked down and saw that he was wearing my shoes.  I laughed and asked him what he was doing with my shoes on.  He said, "I'm being Beth!" and proceeded to strut out into the lounge.  
• When we were at a park, he would only eat his lunch if we pretended he was an animal... so naturally, we fed him out of the palms of our hands.  Cool kid.

I am sure there have been a lot more moments of Ethan silliness, but that's all I can remember right now.  I love living with little kids... it makes me feel a lot better knowing that there are people out there who have worse mouth-brain filters than me... even if they are twenty years younger...

Poetic Slam Dunk

I have been trying to be more intentional about reading more articles and blogs by pastors and theologians. I have been trying to push myself to learn more and always be seeking.  I have come to realize that the minute I run out of questions and start doing all the answering is the minute I need to reevaluate what I am actually believing.

Anyways, today, when I was having a nosy around the 'Art' section of MArs Hill pastor Mark Driscoll's blog, I came across this piece of Slam poetry about 'Singleness'.  I know I have posted on this topic before, so I won't go into it again.  But, if you are interested, you should have a listen.  This poem is mad awesome and she has a serious heart for God.

'Singleness' Slam Poem

Agape.

My friend Kristin Fitzgerald sent this to me today in a message... what a great reminder (and great friend)!  And it's one of my favorite words... BONUS.

Let the agape fill your soul.

|| Agape is disinterested love... Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people, or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes... Therefore, agape makes no distinction between friend and enemy; it is directed toward both. ||

Martin Luther King, Jr

Justin McRoberts: Judgement Day

Lucky for me and the rest of New Zealand, we were apparently supposed to be the first to experience the beginning of the end... a rapture that would take all believers to Heaven along with a giant earthquake that would set the stage the world's last five months of torture and torment for non-Christians around the globe.  Well Harold Camping, sorry to say that there were no major earthquakes for New Zealand today... or any other country around the world... oh shoot, except for Iceland... poor Iceland.  And on further note, there was a full house at church this morning.  So, either none of us here made the cut, or it was NOT Judgment day. I am going for the latter.

Since I first heard about Camping's theories soon after I first arrived in New Zealand, I just thought to myself... "What? Nutter."  I mean, for thousands of years, people have been trying to predict the end of the world.  And guess what people?... NO ONE HAS BEEN RIGHT YET.  And I don't think anyone will ever be right.  Honestly, I don't get the fascination with it why people want to know when "the end" is so badly.  In my opinion, it shouldn't make a difference when it is.  Shouldn't we essentially be living like every day is kind of our last?  Shouldn't we be putting our heart and soul into everything we do?  Shouldn't we be joyous with how we are living our lives and where we are investing our time and our efforts?  I would really like to think that at the end of the day, I'd be alright with the end.

I feel like I have been talking about this whole rapture nonsense for the past week straight here.  I have had more theological discussion about the end times within three days than I think I've had in my entire life.  Without being overly scriptural or theological at the moment, let me just say that I don't think humans will ever get the date of the end times correct.  God's not that predictable.

Justin McRoberts, one of my favorite musicians, wrote a really good blog post about 'Judgment Day' and I think you should take a nosy.  Let me know what you think. 

Justin McRoberts: 'Judgment Day'

Cheers for now!

The Realm of the Real

I have been reading "My Utmost for His Highest" for the past two and a half years, approximately.  This daily devotional by theologian Oswald Chambers had often provided me with more than just food for thought.  This man just had a way of effectively connecting Biblical truths and scripture to the human perspective.  His daily writings are more than tools to simply get people to 'think more', but really try to push believers to actively engage with the Word of God and live the truth of the scriptures to the fullest.  It is a push for us to give all glory to Him.


Here is today's passage that I really really enjoyed:

The Realm of the Real

"In your patience posses ye your souls."
Luke 21:19

When a man is born again, there is not the same robustness in his thinking or reasoning for a time as formerly.  We have to make an expression of the new life, to form the mind of Christ.  "Acquire your soul with patience." Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to construct a soul in accordance to the new life God has put within.  We fail because we are ignorant of the way we are made, we put things down to the devil instead of our own disciplined natures.  Think what we can be when we are roused!

 There are certain things we must not pray about - moods, for instance.  Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking.  A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral.  It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition; never submit to them for a second.  We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the next and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not.  The curse with most of us is that we WON'T.  The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual pluck.

 

I'm not too concerned with what I am going to do... I am more interested in who I am becoming.  I want to be a lover of God and people.    || Shane Claiborne ||

I Waste Paper... :(

I have been wanting to print off all my blog posts for awhile now... I mean, I started back in 2007 and haven't saved anything.  My blog has been a record of my thoughts on heaps of different topics and I have kind of poured my heart out in a lot of different ways.  It's kind of my baby (I know, weird). But, Thanks to time constraints, my laziness, and unwillingness to pay that much money for tons of paper, I just haven't built up the energy to print anything off or record any of it.

However, when I woke up this morning, I had a change of heart... I had a dream last night, a dream that the internet completely crashed and EVERYTHING was lost.  I am talking no more email, no google, no facebook, NOTHING.  All the sites would have to be rebuilt from scratch.  Nothing was saved or kept in external files.  That meant that all my blog posts were kaput.  That would totally suck... especially since I am kind of a journal freak and this is one of my means of journalling/internal and emotional output..

Waking up and thinking about how horrible this scenario would be if it actually came true made me realize how much I really did feel the need to turn my blog into paper form.  So this morning at work - while the day was a bit slow - I printed... and printed some more... and printed some more...

Result?  My whole blog thus far.  I know, I realize that this is a waste of paper and I probably could have done something in a more environmentally friendly way... or realized that my dream was just a dream and the likelihood of anything like that happening in the future is slim, but now, I feel better... and I get to be creative and figure out a fun way to preserve it all into a 'blog journal'...

(Too bad I look like an old lady/librarian in this photo...)

Teaching Jobs.

This post is NOT an April Fool's joke... that would just be redundant.

I finally finished up a few teaching job applications and sent them into the districts!  I still have heaps more I need to fill out - I feel like most of my summer (eh, Winter here in NZ) is going to be job hunting and filling out applications... kinda sucky, but necessary.  It's also probably a really good thing tat I am looking all over the US, not just in one state/city/area.

It's all pretty surreal to think about, really.  I mean, I graduated almost 6 months ago... I finished my student teaching over one year ago... I don't know where the time is going, all I know is that it is going fast.

Please pray for me as I continue to fill out teaching applications.  Don't pray that I just get a job... pray for opportunities and that I embrace them.  Pray that I ultimately go where God is leading me.  Pray for effective communication while I am still living abroad.  Pray that if I do get offered a position, it will be the right one for me.

Thanks for continuing on this journey toward adulthood with me!

Cheers!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

HEAPS of Love going out to all 

you mums out there...

ESPECIALLY MINE!

Kaikoura and Hanmer

This past weekend, my host family took me up to Kaikoura (about 2 hours N of CHCH) and Hanmer Springs (about 90 minutes NW of CHCH).  Even though I went away on holiday not too long ago, this was a really nice, short getaway with my family... especially since last time we were in Kaikoura, we were escaping the earthquake chaos.  Also, since we canceled our family trip to Queenstown/Arrowtown, I finally had the chance to have a good time away with them.  Honestly, I think it was really great for all of us.

Yolande's dad and step mom work in Kaikoura with the whale watch company - so not only were we able to get free accommodation and food while we were there, we got free tickets to go on the whale watch boat!  AWESOME.  I had never seen a whale before, so to say the least, I was stoked.  Yo, Ethan, Sally (Yo's step mom), and I set out on the whale watch Saturday morning, despite the rainy and foggy autumnal New Zealand weather. 

Apparently, Kaikoura is one of the prime locations for whales... why?  Well let me tell you... (I learned SO much on the boat and LOVED every second of it)  Not far off the coast is a huge underwater canyon.  It is 1,600 meters deep and 5,000 meters wide.  Pretty far out.  It is a prime location for deep sea creatures like sharks and giant squid (yes, they DO exist) and... WHALES.  Whales need lots of room to dive down and come back up... and need a bountiful source of food, of which the waters of NZ provide.  Kaikoura has seen orcas, sperm whales, humpback whales, blue whales, heaps of dolphins, seals, and albatross (GIANT BIRD).  I seriously fell in love with whales on this trip... so cool.

Within the first 30 minutes of our boat ride out to sea, we saw our first sperm whale - found by the water and air they blow into the air.  Our captain told us this was already a good start to our day, because normally on a two-hour tour, they may only see one or two whales.  You couldn't see much of the whale, just his back, but you could tell how large it was (around 18 meters).  The neatest thing was seeing him dive under and bring his tail out.  Apparently, a whale's tail is to a whale was a fingerprint is to a human.  Seriously, seeing this whale was better than I imagined.

Unfortunately, after the first sighting, Yo and Ethan were feeling a bit crook (sick)... Ethan even had a couple of nice vomit sessions... of which I had to step away from.  The sight of vomit doesn't bother me, but the smell does.  I decided to move to the other side of the boat for the remainder of the trip... just in case.  The rest of the day, we saw two more sperm whales, a seal, and a large herd of dusky dolphins that kept doing tricks and jumps out of the water.  We also saw heaps of large albatross... which honestly made me want to watch 'The Rescuers Down Under' every time I saw one.  I felt great the entire time and loved every minute of that tour.  I am so thankful for Vern and Sally being so generous and getting us onto the boats!  I would love to go out again on a nicer day!

The next day, we drove west to Hanmer Springs, a small alpine village in the mountains.  Although the weather was still super rainy, foggy, and cold, that made going into all the natural hot pools and springs that much more enjoyable.  It's such a cute little town... I imagine it being SPECTACULAR during the winter when the village is surrounded by snowy mountains.  We enjoyed tea (dinner) at a local Scottish pub and then made our way back to CHCH after that.

I loved getting away with Yo, Neil, and Ethan.  We all get along fairly well, but we are quite different from one another.  I feel like this trip was a good bonding time for us.  We joked around a lot, Ethan was much more affectionate to me than ever before, and we just shared continuous stories with each other about our pasts and lives.  Neil, a very reserved individual who I haven't spent that much time with and haven't been very close to, even called me Ethan's big sister.  I've had really incredible conversations with them over the past few months, but I think this trip was a milestone. I finally feel like a real part of the family...

And typical me, I brought my camera along for the trip, but realized I had left the camera battery at home.  A camera without the battery is no good.  Good thing I burned most of that experience deep in my brain.

Struggling

If you are a conscious human being living on earth, you know by now that Osama Bin Laden was killed the other night.  For the past day and a half, I have been reading articles, watching videos, and seeing countless facebook posts about this news... This is a lot of what I saw/read:

"GO USA!"

"YEAH! Osama's dead!"

"Thank goodness Osama got killed"

[[etc... take your pick... I am sure you've read them too.]]

Right away, I didn't know what to think.  Actually, that's a lie... I was pretty mad.  Then I had to stop and think... why was I mad?  Then I got sad.  Then I was mad again.  Then I was a little happy.  Then I was mad at myself for being happy.  Then I was mad AND sad.  Then I didn't know what to feel.

Then I started reading a plethora of posts about how God never rejoices in a man being condemned to Hell, and that we should never welcome a man's death with open arms, etc...  Again, I didn't know how I felt about it all. 

Being an American in New Zealand has automatically made me a target for questions about how I feel about Osama's death.  Unfortunately, a lot of Kiwis think that all Americans are like those they saw in the news singing "God Bless America" and chanting "USA! USA! USA!" at ground zero.  In most cases, I have tried to avoid it/not really talk about it.  But, here's what I will say and have said...

Not all Americans think that way.

I am upset by the extreme patriotism on the American end.

I think what happened on September 11, 2001 was absolutely horrendous.

I am all for social justice and peace.  

I think there is reason to rejoice and give glory to GOD when peace is restored after injustice.

I do NOT under any circumstance believe that Osama Bin Laden's actions can be or should be categorized as "Muslim actions" or that they were reflective of the Islamic faith.

I am not excusing any of Bin Laden's doings.

Bin Laden was NOT the source of evil.

I can never and will never rejoice in the death of a human being.

I believe in a JUST, LOVING, and GOOD God.

I am incredibly thankful that no one but God judges the dead.

I am not going to lie and say that there wasn't one small part of me that thought, "Well, the world will be a little better off without him here."  But then I disgusted myself... "I don't think that way and never want to think that way!!!"  I love when there is justice, but I do not see the death of ordinary men as justice or  justification for sin.  Jesus already did that.  If I believe in what the Bible says, which I do, then judging my sins alone, I am in just as bad as a position as Bin Laden was.  However, Jesus is the key here.  Do I believe Bin Laden is in heaven? No, I don't think so.  And I honestly think God is weeping for Osama... sad that he doesn't get to spend eternity with him.

I am not meaning to sound holier than thou.  I am not meaning to preach or counter attack all those who have posted their opinions on facebook.  But I do think that we need to be careful about how quickly we allow our immediate heart responses to be fleshed out on social media sites.  I think people, especially believers, should think more about the human condition and the heart of the LORD.

I think too many people rejoiced for the wrong reasons.

A couple things I saw/read today that I really enjoyed:  

"...Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live'..." Ezekiel 33:11

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Prayer

A normal Tuesday night would include me going to Pub Quiz with my friends and just hanging out.  I love Tuesdays... I always look forward to them.  But due to a number of circumstances, no one could go to quiz tonight.  I was a little bummed and thought in my head, "Well, I guess I will just stay in an read or watch a movie."

After tea (dinner) with my host family - [I normally have tea at the pub during quiz] - Yolande asked me if I was keen on going to pray with her and Tina, another woman from the church who I have gotten to know fairly well.  For the past few years, Tina and Yolande (and a few others depending on the time of the year) have been meeting up every Tuesday night to pray at the beach.  When I first arrived here a few months ago, I asked Yo what they prayed for.  Her response: everything. 

I had never gone with Tina and Yo before, mainly because I placed more importance (and desire) on hanging out with my friends.  I wanted to go to quiz and hang out and have a beer.  I wanted to sit with them and chat about life.  I like sharing life with other young singles who dig similar things that I do... and despise Kings of Leon.  Tuesday nights are really important to me, relationally and ministry wise.  However, since no one was going to quiz, I figured that I would go pray with the ladies.  It beat staying in and doing absolutely nothing.

Tina picked Yo and I up at home and we drove to the beach.  We parked and sat in the car for awhile just chatting.  An then Tina initiated the time and began praying.  For 45 minutes, we sat in the car and just prayed.  When Yo said they prayed for everything, they weren't kidding.  Tina, then me, then Yo.  Everything on our hearts, how we were feeling, for ReChurch and the staff, for our families, for each other (including Yo praying that I will soon meet and fall in love with a godly man and get married... hilarious), for the United States right now, for the people still suffering from the earthquake, for the Tsunami victims, for God to move drastically in our hearts, for ministry opportunities, giving him thanks and praise for His blessings, etc... literally everything that was weighing on our hearts, we offered up to the Lord at that beach.  By no means was I expecting a "lame" prayer time with these ladies, but I was so refreshed when we ended.  It was so nice to just gather and pray about... well... LIFE. 

It's a good reminder that nothing is too small or too big to offer up to the Lord.  I don't have to keep anything bound in my mind or heart, because God wants to hear our cares and concerns... and even when we don't tell him outwardly, he still hears us and knows our hearts... So I figure, why NOT tell him, right?  But seriously, it was just such a genuinely good time sitting in that car just praying with those women.  I pray on my own and I pray with the staff, but I haven't prayed in that kind of setting in a long time.  I haven't just emptied my heart of everything in a long time.  Sometimes I get self-conscious of my prayers (I know that's silly, but it's part of my dumb approval idol) and I feel like somethings I am concerned about in life or thankful for are just small and not that significant to bring up in outward prayer.  I'll record them in my pryaer journal and leave them at that sometimes.  But not tonight... everything big and small was let out and it reminded me of how God cares about everything we are feeling and experiencing and thinking.  He desires for us to share life with him just as we desire to share life with other people. 

As much as I love quiz with my friends, I am so thankful I went to the beach tonight.