New Zealand Adventures

I don't know yet, I haven't had the chance to look through the packet they sent me off with or look into what they believe exactly, but it was a delightful service on the Holiness of God. It was crazy last night- I went over to a friends house after a bunch of us went to see Greg Laurie speak. I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but he's said to be the next Billy Graham, but he hardly fits the bill. Sadly, it was the typical numbers game with little substance about how this is your only chance to follow Jesus. Hear the call, come down the isle. Then they proceeded to hand out New Testament Bibles with helpful notes in the margins to make you a better evangelist. It's just sad, really. Audio Adrenaline and Steven Curtis Chapman were ok though, they played beforehand. Two other bands played that created the mosh-pit, crowd surfing type atmosphere. The girls drug me down there but somehow I just can't seem to have the desire to jump around and put people up in the air to a rap that goes, "Christchurch, Christchurch, Christchurch is on fire... the devil, the devil, the devil is a liar." Depth right there. Let's just say it left something to be desired. Anyhow, about the church. I came home last night pretty late and didn't know what church I was coming to today. I flipped through my Christian Community Magazine that Alice gave me for a while and wondered where all of these churches were in my area. I live in the Riccarton/Ilam area of Christchurch and so I need a church around here. You see they do cities differently here. A city is more like what we call a county in the states, so just because the church is in Christchurch, doesn't mean it's anywhere close. I've been to most denominations and branches of things here so I was looking through the "non-denominational" denomination, which basically means an often times self-created belief system, we're-a-combination-of-a-lot-of-things church, and found this church called Riccarton Community Church- close and community minded- perfect! :)

The service was really cool. We sang some of my favorite songs and some I've never heard of, and the pastor, Dave Lawson, is doing a 5 part series starting today about Knowing God. "God is Holy" was today and he had some great points. Holiness is not just another attribute of God, it describes who God is. His justice is holy justice, His love, holy love. In our day and age we use highlighers, underlining or some other means to point of things of significance. In the same way, the Jews used repetition. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy in the ancient texts means to cut or separate. The seraphs in Isaiah 6 used the word to mean sacred. I think both versions of holy bring new light to our often narrow views of God. God is separated from all else and He is to be sacred to us. If we are valued more than these seraphs than we sure as anything better act like it. Also, he brought up that when Isaiah, the anointed one of the time, came into the presence of the Lord he said he was ruined. It struck me- the only way to know how much we need Jesus is to step into the presence of the one that is perfect. You know how it feels when you're doing something, say playing football and you're way better than everyone else you're playing with? You're the star quarterback and everyone looks to you and marvels. Then, Peyton Manning comes out for your pick-up game and you realize- you're actually not that good because he's awesome. Maybe a poor example, but see the point. God is perfect and we might as well realize that He's always in our presence, so all of this "I'm awesome" junk needs to be thrown out the window and we need to realize we are made enough BECAUSE we are living in His presence, not because we in our humanness are enough.

Now I'm enjoying a lazy Sunday. What a great day today has been. I pick Steph up at the airport tomorrow, I'll be glad to have her home. Things are good here, I find Jesus more familiar every day. Thought for the day: "There is nothing that is more dangerous to your own salvation, more unworthy of God and more harmful to your own happiness, than that you should be content to remain as you are." -Francois Fenelon.

The pictures are officially and successfully up on my website now.. so check them out!

By the time you read, the pictures from the trip that I just got home from will be up on my picture website. They can be viewed by going to http://community.webshots.com/user/KatieMoore56 - this should be the correct address, but if for some reason it's not, just let me know. Hollie, my friend from the states, is studying in Australia right now and she came over to New Zealand for the last 2 and a half weeks, it's been fun having a taste of home here. Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Anzac Day! Today, as of 14 minutes ago is Anzac Day, a day of recognizing and remembering everyone who fought in any war for Australia and New Zealand. They basically copied Poppie Day that Great Brittain has... But anyway, we decided to drive back to Christchurch tonight so we could enjoy the festivities tomorrow! Hollie and I are going at dawn to a parade with cannons and all kinds of soldiers and neat stuff.. get excited! At this point I'm just really glad to be home. I feel like in many ways I've put some sort of roots here and I longed to be back to normal life and normal time. I will say though, our trip has been awesome.

For some reason I couldn't wrap my brain around the word disguises on my last blog. As I read it just now I was like, oh my goodness, I'm rediculous.. do you ever do that, just think of a word and totally blank how to spell it? well, anyway, I do.. I diagnosed myself with a spelling disorder in my educational psychology class last semester. It's actually the most common of all learning disabilities, like 1 in 3 have it.. I'm pretty sure I do.. haha

We had a car sing-along on the way home, which actually was our second, the first being because both our IPODS were dead. The car sing-alongs actually just consist of Hollie and I singing and Eva and Clara smiling politely. Well, that's how most things work actually, Hollie and I being kinda crazy and the other two just looking and laughing thinking "those crazy Americans." haha

Today was another great day- saw penguins, albatross birds, a cool peninsula and these crazy circular giant rocks on the beach. When we were on the beach Clara took a picture of the pink sky because it was beautiful and the craziest thing happened- the moon turned up in her picture, but you couldn't see it in the sky at all. It reminded me of the great "The moon is round" story that just as the moon is always round God is always present, sometimes only showing part of Himself and sometimes we can't see Him at all, but He's always there, always taking care of us. Also while I was on the beach this cute little girl came up and gave me a feather and told me to keep it. She said she'd think about me when I was gone. It was really cute. I wish I was more like this little girl- I'm sure she found that cool feather and it meant the world to her, but yet she didn't even give a second thought to giving it to me, that meant far more to her. It was such a random act of kindness to a stranger. What would our world be like if we were more like this little girl, so childlike and desiring to share what she has with others?

Happy Anzac Day and Happy early the Queen's Birthday in a few days.

I'm not really sure where I left off, so much has happened on this trip I feel like I've been gone for weeks. It's been a blast, but looking back, my mind is even tired thinking of all the stuff we've done.

We went to Milford Sound, which everyone else in the entire world thinks is amazing, I found it rather usual, if you will. It was pretty, but this country is so beautiful that it was hard for me to be like, "oh, this is better" when I kinda thought the trees on the drive over were a better view. Hollie and I did, however, go to the underwater observatory which was cool. I learned about all the sea creatures and found black corral particularly fascinating. It's solid white under water and survives from the little microorganisms that live on it. Apparently it would take a big chainsaw to cut if off, it's that strong, yet it looks so flemsy in the water. It turns black when you take it out of the water because all the things living on it die. I found it fascinating because I think that evil is like that. We call it evil and dispise it in our heads, but when we see it a lot of the time we find it appealing and we convince ourselves that it's not that bad (looks white, clean). We have to see beyond the appearance and see that it's black, it's evil and we must stay away from it. Satan uses all kinds of disguises, but we have to call him out for what he is and make him leave. Ok, I'm that nerd that sees a spiritual meaning behind everything, you'd go crazy if you jumped into my head for a day.

We hiked to a chasm while in the Sound which was really neat. The inscription read, "The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time."- Thoreau. Water-amazing, flows through the hand, glides down the throat, tranparent, yet the most powerful force in the world. Makes me realize the power of God to create such sheer greatness out of something so seemingly insignificant and small. I pray that God would use us as He does water- transparently and silently, yet forcefully and constantly.

We just got off the Routeburn, what a beautiful trail. It lived up to its "most beautiful walk in the world" deeming. Our second day it poured, no other word for it. There was a severe storm warning, so what can you do but hike through it? I had so much fun, but I'll be honest, it was pretty miserable for most. Eva and Clara didn't have waterproof clothes, so yeah you know how that went... But my wool socks were the most amazing thing- you get your feet wet, cold for 3 seconds and instant warmth, amazing. Smartwool is the way to go. Anyway, I hiked part of it alone and it was so good to be out with God and just be. It was really cloudy the last day and at many moments I was actually in the cloud, it was awesome. One part of the trail was flooded where a water fall poured out directly on the trail, we took the flood detour. I talked to some guys later that went through it and I wish now I would have, but the girls weren't keen (as they say here). It probably would have been top 5 coolest things I've ever done, if I would have survived and not fallen down the cliff that is.. no worries though, I didn't do it. :)

I read this on the trail and thought it was awesome- substituting God for Jerusalem you read, "If I forget you, O God, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider you my HIGHEST joy." ps 137:5-6. "If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." Isaiah 6:9b. This is where I am right now, learning to live "all-in" for God and not longer walk the line. (just thought ya'll would want to know..)

The guys I met on the Routeburn are coming to Christchurch in a few days and I'm going to take them around, they're super cool. They go to this Bible College on the North Island, but they're totally not perfect and churchy, it's awesome. I'm in Dunedin right now and we're going to walk the world's steepest road tomorrow! Then we're headed to the penguin colony and then home! (christchurch home that is). BYE!

What a great day today. I'm in Queenstown right now, an awesome city. It's Easter for me, and a very timely one at that. I've longed for this day to come, to go to church and worship our risen Lord. It makes me sad in a strong way to not be with my family right now, but I'm still joyed that I'm able to be here with these two wonderful girls traveling around for a few weeks. When I awoke this morning this came to mind, "Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). How amazing to be able to say this with confidence that on this very day death was conquered so that we now fight from victory and no longer for victory.

It's been a crazy vacation so far. Thursday we drove into Wanaka, it reminds me a lot of Breckenridge, and right as we were crossing the street from the car Seth and David yelled at me. We ended up spending the day with them. We cooked dinner that night together- stir fry. Hollie mistakenly put dish soap in it thinking it was cooking oil... we still ate it, just a little bubbly. We considered it our cleansing for Easter. We ran to a movie that night with the boys in this cozy couch theatre that served hot cookied at intermission. When we got back I wasn't tired so I decided to go on a walk through the town. I was laying on the dock overlooking Lake Wanaka looking at the full moon and stars when these 2 guys came down the dock. We started talking and they were really fun and I ended up going to this club right down the street with them where one of them was singing for the night. It was so fun and Eva, holls and I ended up running into them in Arrowtown the next day and went to see him play that night, it was so fun.

We went rock climbing while we were in Wanaka- it was awesome. Hollie and I ended up doing something inbetween climbing the rocks and bush wacking to get to the next. We climbed really high and past my legs and hands bleeding, it was awesome, we laughed the whole time.

Now we're in Queenstown and past not seeing the queen yet we're having a great time (laugh now). We went up the gandala yesterday and at the top you can ride the luge. Hollie and I got 5 rides and it was AWESOME. Alan, watch out when you get here because you're going down. My luge (or whatever you call the contraption) was on it's side on multiple occassions making me totally believe I was about to bust, we laughed histarically.

So now it's Easter and we're enjoying a quiet afternoon. We've made trip videos, they're hilarious. We've slept in the car the past 2 nights and it's really fun. We have story time every night before bed, basically they ask me to tell a story and I do.... It's been really cool and different all at the same time to be with these two girls and I cherish how much we've been able to share together. It's a great way to learn patience to spend literally all the time with 3 people that are very much opposites in a lot of ways, but yet I'm finding how much we have in common, especially Hollie and I.

Hollie and I are driving back to Wanaka tomorrow to let her skydive and Eva is waiting on Clara, our other tripmate, to get to Queenstown by bus tomorrow. Then we're off to Milford Sound where I've heard my mouth will remain open it's so beautiful. We'll see, it's hard to picture something more beautiful that all the stuff I've already seen. Get excited about pictures, they'll blow you away.

What an amazing past couple of days I've had. It's so neat to drive here because there are so many places to stop and do things along your way. We've stopped a few times to do some short hikes in different areas and we've picniced once in an open field and once at this cool lake (like glass, it made me want to wakeboard). The weather has been amazingly beautiful, no real rainfall, which is very unusual for th west coast. God is good.

When stopped in Greymouth first on Monday. It's a tiny, sleepy little town that you'd almost miss if you closed your eyes for a few seconds while driving. It has this amazing jade factory that we went through. "The wise have likened jade to virtue. Its polish and brilliancy represent purity; its perfect compactness and extreme hardness, intelligence, its edges, which do not cut, although they seem sharp, justice; and the pure sound which it makes when one strikes it represents harmony." Jade is said to be harder than steel and tougher than diamonds. It's fascinating. It is made either from extreme temperatures or water refining it. It's so pictoral of being like Jesus to me. Anyway, when I read up on it I'll tell you more about it. Plus, it's green, my favorite color and the color of hope.

Now I'm in Fox Glacier. New Zealand has 3 major glaciers, which are HUGE! NZ glaciers move almost a meter a day, the fastest moving glaciers in the world. From where I walked only an hour before, the ice had changed 6 centimeters. Obviously, we went glacier hiking. It's the coolest thing. You put on spikes on our boots and walked up Fox Glacier's face. Agh, it's absolutely amazing. I can't wait to show ya'll pictures. The glaciers here are maintained from the hot air blown from Australia. As it crosses the Tasman Sea it picks up moisture and upon hitting the Alps it's forced to ascend very rapidly, causing the temperature to plumit and freeze. This one part that we walked through you had to squeeze sideways and it was over 10 meters high above our heads. I'm going to talk Alan into ice climbing with me when he gets here while my parents glacier hike. If you come to this country, it's a must do.

I'm loving my trip thus far. It's only been 2 days and we've done so much stuff. We stay in backpacker hostiles in each city, that are surprisingly very nice here. We're off to Wanaka tomorrow to adventure on! Pray for patience, love, care, safety, energy, and open eyes.

Hollie and I woke up yesterday morning ready to go to church. I, not thinking, didn't look at the map to see where exaclty we were going. So anyway, I found the street on the map and we took off, by this time running a bit late. We drove and drove, finally finding the street but couldn't find the church. By this time it was almost 11:25 so we decided to forget it and instead go to night church. Well, we were so close to the beach so we drove on over there. It was beautiful! The weather was gorgeous and we walked along the waters edge for a couple of hours. Then we went back to town to the Art Centre and market to look around. What a great day we had yesterday. It was so awesome just to talk to Hollie, find out what she loves and thinks that make the blood run through her veins. I'm so excited about the next couple of weeks road-tripping with her, we're going to have some great times.

Gotta tell ya one more thing- On Saturday (2 days ago) we went to the Botanic Gardens. I put some pictures up on my website (http://community.webshots.com/user/KatieMoore). It was so beautiful! There are still a lot of flowers everywhere even though it's fall. It made it perfect with the flowers and the leaves falling all at once. The garden is huge, I don't think I've told you about it- it's got rock, water, flower, tree, and other types of gardens all in one place. Nonnie would love this place.

I love this town that I live in because there's so much to do here. It's very cultural and fun all at the same time. It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen- I hope that by some of my pictures you can glimpse what I see everyday. God is so good, amidst messed up plans, amidst turmoil and frusteration. I think our entire lives we are being taught to realize that God really is enough and we need no other affections or affirmations, that He alone is the provider, the sustainer, our best friend that will never hurt us. I'm learning that God is good not because of what He does but because of who He is. His faithfulness reaches to the skies. God is good, His love endures forever.

There are so many things in life that would be considered totally inappropriate to do in public, but put them on a stage or a canvas and we can call them art, and therefore they are deemed beautiful. This is strange to me, why is this? Why is nudity, sexual behavior and other things of the sort considered to be masterpieces simply because some person decided to draw it or make a production of it? Let me explain my case- I went to a ballet last night with Katherine. She wants to open up her own dance company someday to do Christian contemporary dance. The ballet that we went to had some excellent dancing, but the costumes were totally see-through. The theme was about how the things of this world like plastic surgery, dieting, etc. won't make you happy- great idea, right? Yeah great idea, but totally implemented wrong. They went WAY too far on showing exactly what the ways of this world are... yeah... Anway, I just think we've cheapened the world "art" by making it a catch-all and almost anything can be considered amazing these days..

I went to see Beauty and the Beast tonight. Agh, it was amazing. The girl that played Beauty was 17! She was so good, a little chubby, but really good (sorry, I just imagine Belle to be really petite and skinny, that may just be me :)) The stage scenery was brilliant and the candlestick and clock guys were hilarious. I almost cried through the songs, oh they were so good. We got all dressed up, the guys wore suits and the girls dresses. I'm glad now that I brought my lace dress and heals, it was really fun dressing up.

I just picked Hollie up from the airport. For those that don't know her she's a sorority sister of mine that's studying in Australia for the semester. She flew over so we could travel for our break! Let me just tell you this girl is a blast, but she's crazy. I left the coffee shop tonight to go pick her up at the airport not really sure that I was picking her up. We never really talked about it, I emailed a few times asking exact flights times, assuming I was picking her up, but she never said anything... haha anyway we waited over an hour at the airport tonight and finally she came out, customs held her up. It's really fun to have a familiar home face here, I really like it. So for the next 2 weeks we'll be touring the south island on our own little tour. I'm driving! Scary! haha and Eva and Claira are coming along with us (friends I've made here). We're staying in Christchurch over the weekend to go to the Botanic Gardens, Art Centre and Museum and whatever else. Then, come Monday we're off to Greymouth, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier where we will glacier hike, Wanaka for the air show, Milford Sound to kayak, Queenstown to do all kinds of crazy adventure stuff (it's the "adventure capital" of NZ), Dunedin for the penguins, Tekapo and then back home! There's so much to do in all the cities, I'm so excited!

OK, I'm gonna try to write one more time before I leave and hope to update periodically along our journey to let you know I'm still alive and stuff! Driving is so fun over here, I hate it in the states but here I really enjoy it. It's nice having a car to get around and go on roadtrips like this one.

On Wednesday Steph, Rebecca and I went to Hamner Springs. It's this cute sleepy little town that's known for its hot springs. We ate lunch and then headed over with our bathing suits to go to this giant hot springs resort. Inside there are a bunch of different pools, all different temperatures, and you can get in any of them. It was so much fun and very relaxing. Most of the pools were sulfur, straight out of the ground. They also have chlorine lap pools and other resort stuff, it was really neat. Overall a great afternoon and fun to get out of Christchurch just for the day.

Yesterday I was rock climbing and I had a really big fall off the rock face. I had to be taken to the hospital and they say my leg is broken in two different places....just kidding, Happy April Fool's Day!!!! Alan played a joke on me this morning and told me our Chi O charter was being pulled at UT, it caught me really off guard. haha

It's a beautiful day outside and I'm just about to go enjoy the weather. We're going to the Art Centre market today and then out dancing tonight! Pray for my health, I'm getting a little sick, but overall I'm doing great. Continue to pray for increased faith and solid friends. I love you all and miss you. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.