the sound of the ocean

One of the things I've missed most about now living in Hamilton is the fact that the beach is so far away. The nearest beach is Raglan (about 40 mins drive). I love water, ocean, lake or river. I have really missed the sound of the ocean and the sand beneath my feet. Some of my best days this summer has been spent either at the beach or at the river (mainly in New Plymouth). So with my last 3 days of holiday before the year kicks in again I felt the need to escape the city limits and head towards that wonderful sound of the waves. So I'm here at Waihi beach with my partner in crime Rebecca for a few days of unwinding.

Do you ever have those moments where you crave something? Sometimes for me it is chocolate, or coke, or the ocean. Sometimes I crave space from the world and want to be able to cocoon myself in God's presence....just me and him. Sometimes the sound of the world around me gets so loud that I just need to hear the gentle whisper of my saviour. It is a soothing balm for a weary soul...and at times I feel weary.

So I'm at beach, fulfilling my cravings...for the ocean, for chocolate and for Jesus.

gotta go, I can hear them calling me now

a $16,000 haircut

Well its been way too long since I last posted. So much has happened since October. The most recent of these things is that Make Change has come and gone.....and so has my hair.

We were having an offering for the youth work in Fiji and Tonga. I committed myself to having my head shaved if the offering got to $10,000. The offering was collected and while our team were counting it, Michael Collins began talking. While I couldn't hear all that he was saying, I could tell that he was talking about giving. I gave him the figure of the offering ($8,300) and he then told us that he thought we had the $1700 to bump it up to the $10,000 so we took up a second offering. The total of the offering came up to over $15,000 and so off came the hair. It's now up to over $16,500 with the foreign currency converted and banked.

I found the whole experience a roller coaster of emotion. It was incredibly emotional counting the offering and seeing Fijian currency amongst the money. The stories of young people's generosity towards the offering was challenging and it was pretty special being a part of getting that figure as high as it was.

It was a bit emotional getting my hair cut. I havent had short hair since I was a child, and people often thought I looked like a boy with short hair, so I was a little concerned about how it might look. I also remember a time when it seemed that the reoccuring comment I would hear is "wow you have such beautiful hair". It became a bit of an issue for me as I got hooked into the lie that the only thing about me that people liked was my hair. It took a while to work through that and the "make change" hair cut was terribly freeing as I laid that ghost to rest once and for all. For me it was a personal proclaimation about knowing who I am, and my worth as a person. No one else heard it or knew it, but for me....I heard the father's voice affirming me again as his daughter and that my value is not tied up in physical looks or even what other people think of me.

I want to continue to go after things that confirm and proclaim the truth and help others to go after that in their own lives. The enemy will always try and attack us in two areas...our identity and our destiny. The more we anchor ourselves in Christ the more we can stand firm amidst the storms of life that come our way.

I'll sign off for now and will endeavour to return again before my hair needs a cut!