This little light..

What a whirlwind of a weekend we’ve had. Since we had Thursday and Friday free we decided to make our own way up to see the first ever Christian church planted in New Zealand up the North part of the island. But right from the start the trip was a disaster! Buses were more pricey than we’d hoped, then on arrival we discovered there wasn’t much other you could do than visit the church (which was lovely) without paying another small fortune.

So we went off on a long search for accommodation until we discovered something missing...my brand new mobile! (I was in much need of comfort chocolate at this point). So the rest of the time was spent trudging around retracing our steps looking for my phone then trying to track down the police for a report before catching the ever-expensive bus home, in fits of giggles at how disastrous it had all been!
So, arriving back in Auckland sleepy and emotionally drained (I made sure we both went through the appropriate grieving process for my shiny new phone) we decided to stop trying to make our own plans and follow those put in front of us. And this began with joining our fellow SU camp leader friend Sam in a trip down to the south of the North Island.

As Laura explained, this led to a brilliant few days full of giggles, learning and demonstrations of extreme kindness. Our brilliant new adopted parents Jennifer and Murray were just so lovely and welcoming to us, we couldn’t have asked for them to show anymore kindness to us. Even to the point that Murray (being a doctor) tended to an infected bite on my leg, ensuring I was sent back to Auckland in complete health. (Don’t worry mum I’m all good now!)

On the family car journey to Rotorua I asked Jennifer to explain the sermon from the church service she had attended that morning (since we were a little bit late to our service!). She described a sermon encouraging us to consider the things we have in our lives that we let hold us back from really living and enjoying life as God intends us to do; things such as unnecessary guilt, un-forgiveness, pride and a longing for independence enforced by our society as the ideal. A common sermon theme really, but it left me wondering what exactly we are meant to do when we leave such services? After we have gotten our head around the underlying meaning, applied this to ourselves to identify what it is that we allow ourselves to be held back by and have gotten ourselves to a place where we are ready to try to give this up, and even after we have started praying about all these things...well then what? How can we retrain our brains to snap out of trying to please societies demands and learn to be brave enough to not just dip our toes into the life prepared for us, but to strip ourselves naked and plunge right in (hopefully without belly flopping!)? I think I may be starting to understand that narrow path Jesus was talking about! Although I am so privileged to even have this time allocated to allow my mind to ponder these things, and I really do appreciate this time for growth. I just hope my little brain might grow and maybe even fit into my strangely large skull by the end of the year!

On the lighter side though, what a great weekend we had exploring the volcanic lands here! We came across bubbling, boiling pools of water and mud, a gyser shooting steaming water from the ground through the rocks, stunning waterfalls and towering volcanoes.




We also had the opportunity to understand a little more about the devastation that can occur through natural disasters (which is unfortunately a problem a bit too close to home right now for so many) as we visited a town that was completely buried in mud and lava after a huge volcanic eruption in 1886. However in the face of these extreme forces of nature which so often bring disaster, we also saw the huge human capacity for kindness and unity for caring for others. Whilst being treated like part of Jennifer and Murray’s family we heard of stories of heroes in the past times giving up their lives to save others, received information about the huge response to the recent earthquake disasters and received kindness and encouragement from every single person that we met when they hear about our trip. It’s really true that people want to help people if they are just given the opportunity.
Letting the little light inside you shine, subconsciously encourages others to let their own little light shine a bit brighter...
So, I hope we can all dance to the same tune in 2010...”this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine...” You never know where it might lead. 
Jenn xx