The Land of the Long White Cloud

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  So here is 21,000 on New Zealand.  Plus a few of my own.

So good to drive again!

Practicing my swing over Lake Taupo

Huka Falls

Boiling Mud

Best Blue Steel I've seen in a long time

My boss's hometown

I think we saw a rainbow everyday

Cathedral Cove

This beach was in the Chronicles of Narnia:  Prince Caspian

Dolphin

Overall, we had a great time in New Zealand.  It's a beautiful country.  There's so much to do and see.  Hopefully I'll make it back sometime to see everything I missed!

The new semester starts tomorrow.  Please be praying for our team as we get back on campus everyday.  Also, my parents, Brady and Michelle arrive in two days!  I can't wait to see them and to get a little taste of home.  It's going to be a great week!

V20 Conference

V20 was held in Ngaruwahia, New Zealand.  Good luck pronouncing that name.  Or any name of any place in New Zealand for that matter.  I learned that a very small percentage of the population in New Zealand speaks Maori (the native language and people group of New Zealand) yet almost every place is named in some Maori word.

Anyway, New Zealand was a lot of fun.  We took 28 students and staff from Fiji to this conference.  Over 40 nations were represented there.  We listened to great speakers, great music and were challenged to make commitments and fulfill them by the year 2020.

Sleeping Arrangements in the Camper Van

Proud to be American on the 4th of July

Day of Outreach on Facebook!

As with any conference that Campus Crusade for Christ puts on, we held a day of outreach in which we got out to share our faith.  A lot of the students at the conference didn't speak English as their first language, so they created a Facebook outreach.  I was skeptical at first but I was blown away by the results.  Students simply posted a short anime video on the last day of Jesus life on their friends wall.  Then left a message that essentially said watch and let me know what you think.  There were hundreds of Facebook chat conversations going on in a matter of minutes.  All discussing the gospel after watching this short video.  All in all, over 10,000 people watched this video in just a couple hours.  It was incredible to see our students share their faith through a totally different medium.  Never underestimate the power of Facebook!

Chip

Another great aspect of the conference was getting to see our friend Chip.  Chip is on staff in New Zealand.  We met him in Fiji six months ago when we took classes together for staff training.  He and his wife were on the conference leadership team.  It was great to see him and we'll see him again soon because he's leading a team of Kiwi students to Fiji in August.

We had a great time in New Zealand.  We got to explore the beautiful sights of New Zealand after the conference.  Post-conference pictures are soon to come.

Just Be It

I apologize for my absence lately in the blogosphere.  The past three weeks have been full of activity and void of the internet.  The last week in June marked our Student Conference here in Fiji.  The theme, "Just Be It", was based on Ephesians 5:1 and being imitators of God.  We had over seventy Fijian students come along with twenty American students who were here on Summer Project.  The conference was full of worship, speakers, seminars, men and women's times, and fun!

The conference was very exciting and it was amazing how quickly close friendships were formed.  The last picture above is me and the three guys I've been investing most of my time in this year.  It was awesome to see them learn and grow in the faith in just one short week.  A few of the guys they have been discipling came as well.  It was incredible to see spiritual multiplication at work.  We had a ton of fun and can't wait until next year's conference!

We left this conference and went straight to the airport for another conference in New Zealand!  Pictures to come soon.