Rewarding

Today I had the most rewarding experience at school. I was getting ready to go have a cup of tea in the staff room, when two of my year 8 students that I had first term came to my door. They asked if they could come in and play a song for me that they had been working on. Of course I said sure and man was I ever blessed. This was exactly the kind of encouragement I needed today. I am teaching the year 8's how to play guitar and write their own song. These girls have continued learning the guitar and wanted to show me a song they had learnt together. One of the girls had a guitar when we started and played a little bit, but the other just started learning this year in class. She asked her parents for a guitar for her birthday so she could keep learning the instrument and she has been playing with her friend ever since. This has been by far one of the coolest things I've experienced as a teacher. It was so amazing to see two girls continue with the things I had begun teaching them months ago. This is the type of thing that makes all the headaches worth while and it's a confirmation that I'm in the right place at least for right now.

New Move

Well I have moved into a new flat and I feel so incredibly blessed. From the start I must recognize that God blessed my life by providing my previous housing situation as well. I was very thankful for the way God paved the way before me as I was moving to New Zealand. However, in the past few months I have just really felt a need to move and change my living situation. God utterly amazed me with the opportunity to move in with Jeff, Beth and Emily Fussner. I moved in this past Saturday and settled in right away. I feel so at home here. I am around the family, but I also have my own space and room just to be me. Here are some pictures of my place:) It's absolutely cozy and feels very welcoming as well.

Week of Blessings Day 5

Well, I missed a day in my week of blessings, but for good reason. Today's Blessing: sick days. I am very thankful that my job allows and even wants me to stay home when I'm not well. It typically takes a lot for me not to go to school, but I had a fever all through the night which I couldn't break yesterday. And I've actually been quite weak all day today. I am praying that God intervenes and helps me to feel better soon. This morning I woke up to call in sick only to run out of top up on my phone. So I had a calling card next to my bed and I was going to use that to ring the right person because I can't ring a cell phone from my landline. So when I put my code in, it told me my card had expired. So I thought i would just call the school...well at 6:15 no one is there yet and someone forgot to turn on the answering machine. Needless to say I had to wait until about ten to seven before I was able to get ahold of anybody. This morning reminded me of one of my favorite books when I was a kid: "Alaxander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." Anyway, despite my less than favorable day today, I am thankful for sick days. Hopefully I can sleep some of this off.

Week of Blessings Day 4

Today's Blessing: Two really great classes today and the opportunity to check out the new flat I'll be moving to in about a week and a half.

My first class of the day went really well today and I was able to get much of the recording finished for the kids rough drafts of their songs. They are starting to realize how everything comes together when you do a little bit at a time and/or how hard it is to be ready if you waste time and don't do the project bit by bit. It has been a blessing this week to hear songs come together and help my students record them. My afternoon class is working on performing specific songs. I was able to get through three songs with my class today, that is a huge thing for them to stay focused well enough to play and sing through the songs on the ukulele.

The other blessing of the day is having the opportunity to have a look at the flat I'll be moving in to soon. It is wonderful! I am so very thankful for the way God provided this space with the Fussner family. I will have my own space yet be around others as well. Sometimes it's really important to be around other people, I don't do so well being by myself all the time. Needless to say, God is taking care of all of this and in doing so, taking care of me:)

Week of Blessings Day 3

Today's Blessing: I Found My Camera!!! You get to enjoy a beautiful picture post. Yay! These are snapshots from the places my adventures have taken me in the last month. Yes, you will notice that the end of the rainbow does actually exist:) But sorry there's no pot of gold. God is so good and His creation displays His Majesty.

Week of Blessings Day 2

The blessings continue with an opportunity to live with the Fussner family. For the past few months, I have been feeling a bit unsettled where I'm at. In all honestly I'm not exactly sure why except that I knew I really wanted to live closer to the churches I spend quite of bit of time at, as well as the people in those church families. At the same time, the last few months have been my busiest since being in NZ and I was in no position to try and move in the middle of our school production. I just kept praying about it.

This past weekend I was attending a celebration for the opening of the WMCNZ National Resource Centre and so was Beth Fussner. The Fussners are missionaries with Global Partners here in Auckland and Jeff is the South Pacific Area Director for Global Partners in this part of the world. Beth and I enjoy catching up every now and then and sharing what God is at work doing in and through our lives. I mentioned the thought and desire to move to her on Saturday and she immediately opened up her home, as they have an extra space in the back of their home. What a blessing! It will be a bit further from school but it is really much more centrally located for the rest of my life's activities. I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to have the Lord watching over me through all of this as well. Tomorrow, Beth and I are meeting up for coffee and will sort out all the details of moving etc...I can't tell you how much peace I feel about this move how I know God has put this in place just at the right time.

Week of Blessings

It's another one of those night for me tonight...the kind where I can't wrap my mind around what I'm actually thinking. It's been a while since my last post...mostly due to the fact that I can't find my camera and I have some great pics I've been waiting to post and the other reason is that my power cord died and I had to find a new one to actually charge my computer. Anyway, I've had a weekend of checking off my to-do lists. I still have a ways to go right now but I'm getting there. I did find a new cord for my computer at the fourth store I went to, two of which had never seen this type of cord...those one's ought to update their inventory and computer knowledge a bit I think. I was able to get a few things fixed on my car this weekend, which will help me pass my warrant of fitness and update my registration. Two very important things for driving around legally in New Zealand:)

This brings me to the first blessing I will share with you. On Saturday I went to have my warrant done on the car, it didn't pass. I needed new break pads in the back and a new light in the front and I needed to get the door working from the inside behind the driver-side door. I asked the guy how much it would cost to have it done there and could he do it the same day...he said it would cost about $220.00 and he could start but didn't think he'd get the light bit fixed. (I needed the plastic bit, not just a bulb) I said thanks but I might be back, I'd go talk to a friend first. So I did and am I glad I did that. i went over to the Williams place and talked to Peter about what my car needed. He was able to put new break pads on and even went with me to the auto store to get the right ones. Then I called around to find the light that i needed and found one for $25 at a used parts place. It ended up that the back door was on child-lock (who knew I even had child-lock??). So I found my car fixed and ready for a warrant $65 bucks later as opposed to $220. God is so good!!!

As I'm writing this post I decided it would be cool to post one blessing every day this week instead of giving it all to you now:) I think this will be more fun and hopefully sometime throughout the week I'll find that camera and start posting some more beautiful pictures!

Slice of Beautiful

Rain...rain...rain...rain..this has been the forecast in Auckland for the past 3 months and let me tell you, I am all rained out! I think God knows this because in the past week we have had a few hours here and there that the sun has shown through the rain and displayed a wonderful slice of beauty for the heart, mind and soul. In fact, on Sunday we had an absolutely beautiful day. One of my friends and I went out to Little Huia beach and hiked/explored for like 4 hours! It was amazing. It had been way way too long since I had been able to spend any significant time outdoors and it was killing me. We spent the whole afternoon climbing over rocks, scoping out caves(for future adventures), navigating through wetlands, walking parts of the beach and over dunes. Can I just say, That was SOOOOO Gooood for my heart. There is just something about being in God's amazing creation that refreshes my spirit and draws me to Him. I was incredibly thankful for God providing that day.

Today, God also let the sun break through the rain! After school, I was able to go for a great walk/jog down by the water and it was wonderful. I had planned just to go for a walk but then I started and I just wanted to go faster...it felt so good to be outside again:) As I was jogging I looked up and saw a rainbow beginning to form. About 10 minutes in the entire thing had filled in over bright blue sky and the moon was visible right in the middle. It was incredible. I just watched the sky as I felt the presence of the Lord right beside me. On my way back to my car, I noticed that someone had written on the footpath in chalk.."Jesus is Lord of All Nations." That made my day again! Jesus is Lord of ALL Nations and it's not too often you see that displayed in words here in NZ. God has sculpted that truth throughout this entire nation as some of His most beautiful creation is here, but it's not recognized by the majority of the population. I am so blessed to experience the slices of beauty that God scatters across my life as I live each day..rainy or sunny..in the shadow of His wings.

Curtain Call

Well it's over! I have been pushed to the max physically and emotionally in the past 3-4 months. My students successfully presented their first ever musical drama and I am very proud of them. They did the show, "Quest" by John Dunn. It was perfect for their first show. I will say the students performed well though I totally understand why directors say children and animals are the hardest to work with. There were days I wanted to pull my hair out after rehearsal, thankfully I didn't:) In all honesty I'm not even sure what I'm feeling right now. I'm just tired. I am glad that God gave me the strength and patience to direct the show and I learned so much about not relying on my own strength. There is no way I would have been able to make this show happen without God teaching me to trust Him. Despite my sometimes aloofness and evident stress, I made it through.

I think this show really helped me build rapport with the kids. There were many days I took kids home after rehearsal and just had that little bit of extra chat time. It was good to get to know some of my students a bit better and I think they enjoyed getting to know me as well. I really enjoyed building positive relationships with the kids.

Things I learned through this process...

1. To operate in a "make it happen" mindset. It doesn't matter if I don't know how to do a task, I have to sort it out and make it happen.
2. To delegate jobs but still check in with those doing particular tasks.
3. To trust that the kids will pull it together.
4. To rely on God's strength.
5. To be flexible with what's happening every day.
6. The human body can be pushed further than you might think.
7. The mind is a powerful tool when empowered by the Holy Spirit.
8. Encouragement equals results.
9. I teach to be obedient to God's leading in my life right now.
10. Kids will be Kids.

Theses lessons are in no particular order, but they are a reflection of how taking on the challenge of directing a production has shaped the way I think and operate right now. I may have to learn some of these lessons again and again, but I trust that God is teaching me for His glory.

Listen For My Heart

Prayer. Often I find myself going on and on...then I remember it's not the number of words I use to talk with God it's the sincerity of my heart that speaks to the Spirit. I tend to go in and out of seasons of praying boldly and praying just to pray. I'm not sure why this is, but right now I find myself just wanting to run to Jesus, sit at his feet and just be. Just to be in His presence and know that I am in the shelter of the most High God.

This song by Beautiful feet is playing on repeat on my computer right now. It describes this season of my life so perfectly.

Listen For My Heart

Lord I run to Your feet, my favorite place to be,
So eager to sit with You,
Lord I want You to see, what resides in me, all the love for You.

On high You reign, You're the God of everything
Earth and sky obey, they declare Your majesty
How can I convey, when all I am is me?

Lord I have so much to say, a thousand prayers to pray, but what will turn Your ear?
Lord I love You so, I just need You to know, Jesus I hope you hear...

On high You reign, You're the God of everything,
Earth and sky obey, they declare Your majesty,
How can I convey, when I all I am is me?

Lord I have so much to say that I don't know where to start,
but when my words all fade, won't You listen for my hear? Please hear my heart.

On high You reign You're the God of everything,
earth and sky obey, they declare Your majesty,
How can I convey, when all I am..is me?

Lord I run to Your feet, my favorite place to be, so eager to sit with You.

Follow the Leader

Many of us know "follow the leader" as a simple kids game. I know my teachers used to have us play this game(in primary school) to learn how to follow directions and instructions...similar to Simon Says... As I grew up I discovered youth leaders like to play follow the leader with blindfolds and obstacles:) That was always fun. Then in college, follow the leader became a trust/team building activity with blindfolds again and obstacles that included specific instructions. By now you would think that I have this following the leader thing down pretty good right? Well, I think not. God is teaching me about doing more following and not so much leading. My personality is naturally determined and I generally have a, "let's get to it" attitude about whatever I'm doing, which often puts me in a leadership position.

Along with the "Don't take that into your own hands lesson" written below, God is also saying, "Follow Me." My true desire is to follow God's lead in all that I do, but I think sometimes I get carried away and go further than God wants me to go for a given time. Why is it that I can see yet I feel blind? I pray often for God to open my eyes to what He is doing. I pray that He leads me in the direction He wants me to go. Yet, I think sometimes I forget to wait for my instructions or directions, I just go to it and end up feeling lost.

God in His grace and love is teaching me this lesson of following and how to not take control. He is allowing me to rest in Him and learn to wait for His directions. He is graciously giving me all I need every day to continue in Him and in the roles He has place me in. I am not the leader, I am the follower, I do not need to be in control of my life, it is not my own and God has it planned to bring honor and glory to His name. Praise the Lord.

Control Freak

Hi my name is Sara and I'm a control freak. Well, sort of. I don't care so much about the day in, day out things...it's the big life altering decisions that I like to be in control of. Now let's be honest, those are generally the times when God's says, "Hands off, I'll deal with this one!" Example: When I was a little girl, I would have told you that someday I was going to live in Australia and be a veterinarian. It ended up that God said, "Well, ok the South Pacific's a good idea, but let's send you to New Zealand and I'm going to make you a teacher/missionary instead of a vet." Good thing God sorted that out because I'm allergic to lots of animals and being a vet would have been awful and I love New Zealand...God is good:)

Right now, I'm in the midst of a few (many:) life situations that I would love to take control of and sort out, but God is saying, "Hands OFF, don't touch that!" Man is that hard. The other night a woke up around 4am and all I could hear in my head was, "don't take it into your own hands..." over and over again until about 5:30am. I think God got His point across and I wont be doing any handling or sorting out any time soon.

Tonight I was doing a Bible study on Sarah and Hagar and what do you know....me and that other Sarah have a lot in common, she was a control freak too! I pray that God allows me to grasp His wisdom as I'm sure Sarah wished she had done. I pray that this reminder of God's power, trustworthiness, and holiness is enough to teach me to be more patient and allow God to work in ways that bring Him honour and glory.

Parents Visit NZ

I have had the privilege of hosting my parents in here in Auckland for the past week and a half. I was blessed beyond belief that they were here. Their trip here was definitely full and tons of fun. Their first couple days here they graciously came with me to school for a set paining day and a rehearsal for our school production. I was so thankful for their help and opportunity to see where I teach and meet some of my students.

After that we hit as many places and fun activities as possible in the rest of our free time. We made it out to Bethells beach and lake, did a harbour cruise tour, went a bit up north to a sheep farm, went to an under-water park, we even toured the Coromandel peninsula! Just making that list amazes me. God provided nice weather for our activities as well. The first few days were freezing, but after that it warmed up a bit and we even had sun on the cruise/beach day and for our Coromandel trip.

It's hard to describe how blessed I felt to have them here. I am so thankful they had the opportunity to meet many of my friends and important people in my life here in NZ. They were able to visit my church and see exactly where God has placed me and what God is doing through the church here in NZ. Praise God for such a wonderful blessing during these school holidays. He has blessed me abundantly!

In Recent Days...

I have been at school a lot.
I have not allowed the thought of getting the flu or a cold even enter the smallest space in my brain.
I have spent heaps of time on our school production.
I went to a big ship that was in the harbour (NZ spelling:) it had a big book store.
I bought the book, "A Hat For Ivan" by Max Lucado...great book!
I've gone to student's homes to meet with parents about production rehearsals happening in the holidays.
Church stuff is going pretty well.
God has provided so much strength and enormous amounts of energy/focus.
I cried at school-but not in class thankfully
I feel like the energizer bunny...but I'm really not sure how I keep going because I don't run on batteries.
Friendships are growing.
One of my flat mates moved out and the other is in Sri Lanka...so the house is quiet.
I end up staying up too late because once I get in bed my mind wont stop throwing questions at itself.
Jesus is all my hope for each day.
No person, place, thing or circumstance keeps Jesus from expressing His love for me.
God's grace has been overflowing.
I have not been as dependable as usual.
I learnt that sometimes I wear too many "hats" and some I could wear if the time was right and others I just don't need to wear at all. -note this lesson came from the book above, not actual hats:)
I'm living one day at a time.

Life Unscripted

Sometimes it would be so nice if there was a script for this life. Like I could read ahead and know that everything was going to end up being ok. I could see what was going to happen in year 24, month 6, week 4 of my life in order to prepare myself for the challenges that I will face. But guess what! Life is unscripted. I don't know what's going to happen from one month, week, or day to the next. Life just happens. Yes, as Christians ultimately we do know the future...that Christ will return and bring those that confess with their mouths and believe in there hearts with Him into eternal life. But as for this life, we must trust the strength of the Lord to carry us through and the Spirit of God to direct our steps and give wisdom to every situation we face. If only I could react with wisdom to every challenge I face instead of the impulse of my own feelings. Better yet, that my impulse would be to respond with the wisdom of the Spirit. As for right now, I will pick up the armor on God and wear it diligently as I relish in the grace of God that makes a way for me to live in accordance with His purpose for my life.

Heart Day

Today I had a heart day:) It was a day devoted to taking care of my heart so that I am able to continue loving others well. It started with a sleep-in. I didn't sleep the day away, but just slept until I woke up naturally, which happened to be around 9:30. I love the feeling of going to bed at night knowing that I have no reason that I must set the alarm...and I won't miss something important if I keep sleeping. It's good for my heart every now and then. After I woke up, I read for about 1 or 2 hours and just enjoyed reading. I am reading a book called, "Sons of Encouragement" by Francine Rivers. It is a wonderful book that tells the stories of Aaron and four other encouragers of God's main men in the Bible. The stories are in narrative form and then follows each with a character study using the Scripture that story comes from. I highly recommend this book!

Around 1ish I met my dear friend Julia for lunch, coffee, and a walk on the beach. It was great to have time to catch up with her and spend time investing in each other. We were not in a rush and could just enjoy being in the company of encouraging and loving friends. I was so blessed. Once we left the beach, we went to Julia's and spent the rest of the afternoon making cards. So great! Before we knew it, it was 6pm! Time flies when life is peaceful.

I know that every good and perfect gift comes from above and I know that today, God gave me a wonderful gift by allowing me to spend the day in ways that take care of my heart.

With this said, you can stop worrying mom:) I slowed down to take care of myself today, better yet, Jesus took care of me!

Be Still

My mind really has not stopped spinning since my last post, however, I am reminded of something God spoke to my heart recently, "Be Still."

Tragically, this is something I seem to have forgotten how to do. While I was away a couple weeks ago down in Taupo, I did take some time to just be. I sat by the lake and laid on the shore just taking in the sunshine, cool air, birds singing and the Voice of Truth. "Be Still" these were the words that came to my heart. I was likely in one of my question asking modes and going on and on...when Jesus just had to stop me and say, "Shhhhh...Be Still."

I want to move forward, I need to keep going. The Lord must be my strength and my salvation. I know that this life is not about me, yet my selfishness still scares the heart within me...it must be purified daily! For the sake of Christ, He must purify my heart and renew my mind according to His purposes.

Yes, I have questions and yes, I would love to know exactly where God is moving around me and how exactly He wants to use me, if at all.

This Song by Steven Curtis Chapman really speaks of where I'm at mentally, Spiritually, and physically right now.

His Strength Is Perfect

I can do all things
Through Christ who gives me strength,
But sometimes I wonder what He can do through me;
No great success to show, No glory on my own,
Yet in my weakness He is there to let me know . . .

CHORUS
His strength is perfect when our strength is gone;
He'll carry us when we can't carry on.
Raised in His power, the weak become strong;
His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect.

We can only know
The power that He holds
When we truly see how deep our weakness goes;
His strength in us begins
Where ours comes to an end.
He hears our humble cry and proves again . . .

(chorus)

All Over

My mind is all over tonight. I can't seem to concentrate on one thing or topic for more than five minutes. I've started writing this blog three times now because I wasn't sure how to start. So what's on my mind??

Students: I just got home a bit ago from school. We had rehearsal after school again today and then I bring a few students home and then I come home:) My heart breaks for so many of them. I just want them to know Jesus, I want them to have a fair shot at life, I don't want to see them living in abusive, drug ridden, broken or dangerous homes! I love them, as much as they give me headaches, I can't stop loving them. I get frustrated with myself for not being able to show them the love of Christ fully, why do my emotions and responses have to get in the way?

Netball: I am going to play net ball again tonight with a group of people and I'm looking forward to it but dreading it at the same time. I'm not sure how to explain. I know I will feel great when I'm finished and I know it will be fun, but for some reason I would just rather sleep.

Family: I love my family so so much, even though I have moved to the other side of the world. I didn't move to get away from them, I didn't move to make them miss me. I moved because God said, "Go!" It's more miserable to say no to God than to be separated from family. I want God to be glorified in and through me, so I must be willing to be where He wants me, and that happens to be NZ, I can't imagine being anywhere else right now.

Church Planting: A few years ago God put a desire in my heart to be part of planting churches to grow His Kingdom. Circumstances in life are changing around me and I know that I will have to take some steps of faith in the next few months to see where God is leading in order to follow.

The weather: it's cold, not freezing but cold. Most of the day is fine, but when I get home, I find it hard to get warm unless I go into my room, turn on the heater and stay in there. This house doesn't have very good insulation, so the living room is really cold after dark.

Responsibilities: I was trying to figure out how to have fewer responsibilities so that I'm not so stressed out right now. The problem is I can only think of more things I should do rather than things I could do without doing?? Hmm...this is a problem.

I could likely list about ten more places my mind has been in the past couple hours, but I think this is enough randomness for now.

IWU in NZ

Last week Tuesday I had to say goodbye to a dear friend and a team of seven IWU students who came to NZ to work along side of and encourage the church here in New Zealand. They spent time ministering mostly with the Papakura church and built neat relationships within that church. They also came over to Redoubt North to assist with Youth Group and CIA twice. It was a blessing to have them involved with those activities. In addition to these things they helped prepare 21 banners/paintings for the children's program at the Gathering Wesleyan Convention in Taupo. (That's another post)

To be honest, it was a bit surreal to have them here. It seems like ages since I was here with the first team that came out. While they were here, I wanted to take them to some of my favorite places in the area. They did a lot of work, but they needed to see some of God's beautiful creation out in NZ as well. (I couldn't let them leave if they didn't)

The first place I took them was Fairy Falls. This is a beautiful series of waterfalls out in west Auckland. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to trek into the bush a little ways to get to the falls but they sure are beautiful and we had a gorgeous day as well, so that made it even better.

Next, we were off to Bethells lake. Not only is this a fun place to go because there are huge sand dunes, it is absolutely stunning beautiful. We spent a bit of time there walking across the dunes, running down the dunes and soaking in the beauty of God's creation.

After Bethells lake, we drove down the road five minutes to Bethells beach. Another one of my favorites! We made here just before sunset:) The tide was perfect so we could walk over to the surf beach and watch the sunset from there. I couldn't believe how perfect the timing was in everything. God blessed our day and travels and timing in order to reveal Himself in everything we did.

A few of the students decided that it would a good idea to have a swim and thankfully I anticipated this before hand and told them to bring a dry pair of clothes. It was a bit chilly for swimming if you ask me, but they had fun and it's probably the only time they'll get to swim in the Tasman sea.

Where Are You??

This has been the question of the past two months that I seem to find in my inbox about once a week. Well, I am running just to catch myself. It's that time of year again when everything is just crazy!! This week I have not been home before 9pm, except for one day. I have been busy with school, busy with church, busy with life and keeping myself going.

School production: Three days a week after school, staff mtg. one day and then every other Friday we have CIA..so that pretty much means I have a night off once every two weeks:) Right, this is not my strength.

Church: CIA going really well, kids are very receptive to the Gospel and learning how to use their Bibles! I love to see that. Queen's B-day celebration this weekend so I am headed to Lake Taupo for the "Gathering" Wesleyan National Convention. I leave in the arvo tomorrow. I am doing a seminar with Becca Bowlin about modesty and dressing to glorify God and point others to Him instead of ourselves. Helping out with the kids program for one block of time, and as of tonight, singing in the Sunday am service...Ok, God's going to have to take all this on too..cuz I'm a bit overwhelmed...excited but overwhelmed.

Living...not quite sure how this is happening at the moment. I just got home and was prepared to stay for about a half hour then go fill my car with petrol for the trip tomorrow and also get a few last minute things i.e. I ran out of shampoo two days ago!!! My flatmate has just asked me to correct a paper for her (she's learning English) I haven't been around much lately, so I didn't want to say, "no." Thankfully, I did have time to do some laundry today, so now I have clean clothes to take with me for the weekend. And somehow God allowed me time to delve into study of the life of Aaron, Moses' brother. Loving it! Learning heaps! and really just not sure what else to say.

Prayers appreciated:) Good night.