Graduation

The whole fam took off to Wellington last week to celebrate Tim graduating from Police College. He looked so smart and it was a really special day. So proud of my little bro!

Tim and Josh

Mum and Dad with Tim

Leybourne Family + David and Gran

Weddings

I went to heaps of weddings over the summer! Love was in the air! These are a few pics from Becky and Jono's wedding. There's was the wedding of the year ;)

A year later...

At the start of May last year Elli, Jono, Dan, Cam and I were hanging out and decided to write down where we thought we'd all be a year later. It's funny to look back and see what we thought and how some of us were on the money and others were quite far off. It was something silly more than serious but is still interesting to look at...

6 May 2007
In 1 years time we will be...

Daniel – Full time job, flatting and doing something big, (getting married, jokes). Single but nice not to be. New band. Great hair.

Jono – In Uni studying graphic design and will be doing part time photography. Still living at home – definitely. Single but definitely looking for that potential candidate.

Elli – At Uni. No love life.

Cameron – In a good apprenticeship and flatting with Danny, (high five). Will have a new guitar amp – a AC15CC1X. Elli says a new girl as well. Cam says pretty much single. New band too.

Sarah – Probably either doing 2nd year Pathways Internship or at BCNZ or working for the trust. Single more than likely. Dan says married and pregnant with triplets.

23

Out to dinner for my 23rd birthday at Bolero.

So far 23 feels no different! Not that I expected it would.

World Travels Continue

It was January 2006 when I last left New Zealand and I only went as far as Australia. My feet have been itching since then and finally in June I will be jet setting once again. Towards the end of the month I will be heading to Fiji for 3 weeks with the World of Life Youth Reachout 2008 Team. I am priviledged to have been asked to go as a leader on the team. While away we will travel around schools and churches sharing the Gospel of Jesus with them through different means. I'm really looking forward to the challenges the trip will bring. It will be an amazing experience sharing with the people there but also sharing with the other on the team. I'm definately looking forward to it.

Fiji - the stereotype

Then at the end of December I will be getting on an even bigger plane at taking off to the Philippines! A team of young people from my home church, Lincoln Road Bible Chapel will spend 3 weeks in and around Manila. We will work for some of the time with Gawad Kalinga an organisation that works in poor areas building houses and helping the people to become self-sufficiant. We'll also spend some time in an orphanage, playing with, reading and teaching English to and loving the kids there.

Manila

A GK village

While both trip are Missions oriented they will be quite different. Not only because of the differences in the countries but also the overall purposes of the teams I am going with.
Obviously, the main point is to share the love of Jesus with people through word and deed. One trip will have more of the word and the other deed. We are going to give and to be a blessing, but as I have been told many times already, we will ourselves learn and grow so much through the experiences we will have.

Jars of Clay

Yeah, this is my fav song and I wanted to try and get all of it. You can see at the end it suddenly goes black... thats when I was getting snapped by some lady. Not that I'm proud of that at all. The stinkest thing is that I missed the best part of the song. It builds up and then just stops and it went to dead silence and then I started the clapping! Haha yuss!!

Pics from various concerts

U2 Concert way back in 2006!

Bono and The Edge (crappy pics off my phone)

Becky and I after the concert (which was so cool)

Jon Forman at Parachute 08

Jon Formans chin at Parachute 08 (I held onto his leg!)

Luke Thompson opening for Jars of Clay a couple of weeks ago. Please excuse the blurryness as I shouldn't have been taking pictures so I had the flash off.

Jars of Clay doing their thing. I think this was my fav song, and when I got sprung with my camera out! Oops! It was a great night, they were awesome live and Luke Thompson too!

Hi Cilla!

Haha! You get a nice post just for you! I'll have to come back here and update it more often now! Love ya!!

Switchfoot!

What an awesome night it has been.
Despite the sweaty, crushing bodies behind
and beside me, it was amazing!
They were so cool live! I don't really
remember when they came to the Harvest Crusade
in 2003. They played New Way to be Human and Gone,
I remember that much for sure. Tonight, was unforgettable!
Cam and I were right in the front against the barrier.
We were a little off the the left, which we decided was probably
a good thing, considering how rough it got in there.
They played all their recent hits, starting out with Oh! Gravity
through to Gone and Meant to Live. Cam caught a pick from Jon
then found one on the ground after as well. They're personalised
'Switchfoot' ones even. I begged one of the techies to get the set
list for me, so I scored with that one.
When we got outside we saw a signing table so snuck in the line
just in time for them to walk out (Cam and I both shook Jon's hand).
I got my set list signed and Cam got a poster. Aimee walked with
us and shook their hands etc. Jerome the guitar/keys/vocals guy
recognised me from the front even! We were standing right in front of him Haha!

I'm tired and rambling so I'll finish this with a few pictures...

Baby Ella

Ella Samantha with big brother Joshua John.

Welcome to the world little Ella.
The newest addition to our family, my cousin.

Pics from Taupo Block Course

Interns 2007

Matamata Interns

Reverse Snap! my favourite...

Sillyness

View from outside our room

Down at the Lake

Don't ya just love how colour co-ordinated we are! This was a total fluke.

Charlie's Angels!

With James randomly behind us.

Friends

It was good getting away to Taupo last week. I know it was for study and hard work, but it was still nice to be somewhere different and new. Part of what made the week really good was meeting the Interns who go to the block courses in Wellington. It was the first and only time we'll all get together - except Grad, and even then Steve and Dan won't be there.
I love our Matamata group but it was nice to have some more diversity amongst the group. It did mean that there was more choice about who to hang out with. And also less time to catch up with some of the people I would have liked too. The fellowship with each other is really one of the best things about the year. It still amazes me how most of us have just clicked. I guess it's to do with our common experiences and desires for our lives. It's easy to be friends with each other this year, almost instant. We've come a long way from those first awkward hours together in February.

I think the challenge to stay connected will come next year ... when we'll all be busy with either ministry, work or further study and our compulsary attendance at block courses is no longer required.

Winter

I heard this funny saying last week,
"Someone left the backdoor open and let winter in."

I thought it sounded really funny, now I definately agree someone has let winter in!
Today is wet and cold. We are getting the storms today that have been battering parts of Australia for the last little while. It's raining heavily and is bitterly cold.
I probably shouldn't complain as we haven't gotten to minus temperatures here in Auckland, but it is much colder than we're used to! Thank goodness for warm jumpers and hot coffee!

Expectations

It's nice to know that people care enough about me to ask what my plans are for next year. But I mean seriously, it's still a whole six months away. I obviously need to have some idea before then, but to be thinking hard about it now seems almost silly. Why should I be stressing myself out about it now. The chances are that it'll change between now and then anyway.
I feel that in all the questioning there are certain expectations from different people about what I SHOULD do. I understand that the reasons for this are things like they can see some of my strengths and weaknesses and therefore form opinions about what I would be good at. At the same time though, I feel a certain amount of pressure in the suggestions. Or, maybe it's frustration! Frustration that other people can see things about me that I can't or even don't want to see. Frustration that I feel like I haven't got a handle on life and what I'm doing. I know for sure that there is fear somewhere in all of this. I don't want to make the wrong decision, or fail at something. I also don't want to let 'people' down and most of all God.

Something just dawned on me... is this worry? Am I worrying? Is it wasted energy? Am I doing something Jesus teaches against?
Quite possibly, but it's also something I have to face and deal with. Afterall in 6 months this course will be all over and I will have to do something.

Once again I feel a strong sense that I need to rely on God. He has brought me this far and will continue to carry me into the future he has planned for me. I feel I am being reminded to seek wisdom from him and to remember that even if the decision I make isn't the 'best' one, he will still go with me.
Thank you father.

Arty Farty 2

Weekend at the Beach

I stayed with Elli at her Aunt and Uncle's over the weekend. They live in the bush near Muriwai. While Elli worked on Saturday, I enjoyed some time out at the beach.

Can you tell I'm a city girl?

Rebekah and Jonathan

We were finally able to celebrate the engagement of Rebekah and Jonathan on Saturday night. They got engaged at the end of Jan. Can't wait for the wedding in January next year.
Thought this was a cute picture of them.

Becky and Jono's Engagement Party

The Thorp's and Glover's.

Besties!

Good friends ( and Katie!)

Cutting the cake - the happy couple!
(check out the massive mirror behind them)

Pretty

Where will you be in a year?

A couple of weeks ago we had fun with this question. It was too late at night to be totally serious but it will still be interesting to look back on next May.

I think as much as this is a fun question to think about with friends, it's also a really important one to think about.
I think that God wants us to be changing and growing constantly. And I think that looking ahead to where we going is an important part of that.
There's more to it than thinking about what you want to be doing, or whether or not you are single or engaged etc. Think about where you want to be in God. How do you want to have grown closer to Him or become a closer image of Him. How will you be living as His light in our world?

Good Book

Read this book recently and it was really good, this is the book report I had to do for school on it. I'd recommend it.

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith
Rob Bell

An artist's signature on a painting of Elvis Presley and the possibility that this artist could have insisted that they had painted the greatest painting ever and because of that there be no need for anyone to paint anymore, became the starting point for this book by Rob Bell, a man well known for his narration of the Nooma devotional series. Artists, he says, are always exploring, rearranging, shaping and bringing new perspectives. Like artists, we, as followers of Jesus, understand that we have to keep exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and others. This is the idea Bell explores in the book.

I would say it is a book that challenges Christians who live in an ever changing world, to think about how we deal with a God who doesn't change and how our faith in an unchanging God is challenged by the world we live in. Bell, encourages readers to, “... live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible, aware that this life is not the last painting.”

Bell, explains about things in the Bible, where our understanding of the significance is very dependent on a knowledge of the cultural context of the situation. He talks about rabbis and that their interpretation of the Torah was called a yoke. Followers of a rabbi and his teachings would take up that rabbi's yoke. He also explains further about the Torah and Jewish schooling, therefore giving a deeper insight into Jesus' choice of disciples.

As a reader, I appreciated the way Rob Bell presented his ideas in this book. He says from the outset that these ideas are just one man's interpretation of the Bible. He encourages readers to test and probe things for themselves. In Chapter One or 'Movement' One, as Bell calls them, there is a section called Questions. Sometimes I find that doubts and questions start to come into my mind, I know this is true of other Christians as well. God is so big and sometimes seems impossible to begin to understand. Bell encourages us to recognise these questions and makes a point that questions are not scary, when it comes to faith, not having questions is scary. When I have questions I can be humbled before God. It's the point where I accept that God is God and there is so much I do not know. Even some of the great men and women in the Bible had questions. Moses questioned God's choice of him as the man to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, David questions where God is many times over in the Psalms and even on the cross Jesus calls out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Another part of the book that I appreciated is in Movement Three in a section called Labels.
He challenges the label 'Christian' and the danger of it becoming a bad adjective rather that a positive noun. When you turn the word Christian into an adjective and use it to describe something, that something may not always be good and true. Being a Christian should mean that everything I do, is done to it's best and is for God's glory. Bell played in a punk band in pubs and bars and says this in the book,
“People would regularly ask us if we were a Christian band when they found out I was a pastor. I always found the question a bit odd. When you meet a plummer, do you ask her if she is a Christian plummer?”

From this I realise that as a Christian I will never have a secular job because Christ is in me, He is always with me and therefore whatever I do in His name will be blessed by Him.

Virginia Tech

I guess being from New Zealand, I sometimes feel like I am immune to the drama and tragedy that so often affects far off places around the world.

Virginia, USA is on the otherside of the world and is a fairly low profile state of America. It has a special place in my life though. I have spent about 4 months of my life living there, which out of 22 years doesn't seem like a lot, but it was the furthest and longest I'd been away from 'home'. I spent that time at a rustic girls camp - 'Camp Strawderman' up in the hills of Western Virginia, near to Edinburg and Woodstock. I met many wonderful people at my time there and will never forget my time there.

When I saw on the news a few weeks ago about a shooting at Virginia Tech I just knew it was too close to home for there to be no camp girls there, or have family there. I mean, they sold t-shirts, pens, beer can coolers, hats and any other piece of College paraphanalia you could imagine at the Wal-Mart near camp. I didn't hear anything for over a week, so maybe everyone was fine. Wrong.

I had an email last week from one of the ladies at camp. In it she told me that one of the older girls who had been at camp both years I was there had been at the school and had been shot.
Thank God, the crazy guy had shot her in the leg three times and she survived.

She will come right physically soon enough, but who knows about the emotional impact it will have on her.

If you have a moment, pray for the families of those who were killed that day, but also think of those who are survivors.

Life in General

I sometimes wonder why I continue to bother with the blog when I'm pretty sure no one checks it.

Life has taken some interesting twists and turns this year. New job, new friends, new view on life, new appreciation for God.

Each new day holds something different.

I've been thrown way out of my comfort zone many times already.

I'm sure that the best is yet to come...

Comet McNaught

Space spectacular runs until end of month
by James Ihaka NZ Herald Online

A balcony in Ngunguru, Northland, was a perfect place to capture the comet. Reader Peter Taylor opened his Canon EOS 350D to f5.6 for 30 seconds to get this shot.

The comet that has stunned star gazers into silence blazing across the skies is now promising an even more spectacular sight.
This week, Comet McNaught will provide a dramatic glimpse of its tail, which is about 30 million kilometres long, about one-fifth of the distance between Earth and the sun.

Dr Grant Christie, an astronomer at the Stardome Observatory at One Tree Hill, said the tail was caused by a combination of pressure from sunlight and the comet's motion.
He said the only reason the tail could be seen was because it was being illuminated by the sun.
"If you were in the middle of the tail, it would look pretty much like a vacuum," he said.
"It's actually material stretched over a long distance and is visible because space is so empty.
"It's very tenuous - almost like cigarette smoke - as opposed to thick, ashy cloud."
Dr Christie said the frozen nucleus of the comet - "mainly water ice with a bit of rock and dust all mixed in" - was about the size of Auckland.

The comet's head could be many thousands of kilometres across.
"The head of the comet will be rotating and, as it does, it's usually squirting out debris through fissures in the surface, creating these little jets," he said.
"And they get wrapped around in arcs of their own."
Throngs of comet-watchers, armed with binoculars, cameras and telescopes, have become a common sight around Auckland's higher vantage points in the past week.

Trafeena Chang, who works at the Orbit restaurant in the Auckland casino's Sky Tower, said it was hard to tell whether people had packed into the eatery for the cuisine or for a ringside view of the comet.
"Maybe the people here are looking at it - you probably couldn't get a better view anywhere else," she said.
"We have heard a few people talking about it but I haven't seen it myself."
Dr Christie said people did not need high-powered telescopes to view the comet.
"A pair of binoculars would do just fine," he said. "A telescope isn't necessarily going to show you any more."

Police and the Fire Service said they had not received any comet-related distress calls since Thursday night, when many people phoned to report strange objects in the sky.

The comet was discovered by Australian astronomer Rob McNaught at Siding Springs Observatory in New South Wales on August 7 last year.
It is expected to be visible to the naked eye until the end of this month.

Vantage Points
* This week, the best viewing times are between 9pm and 9.30pm, looking southwest.
* For the best vantage point head to a beach like Piha or Karekare where there is an unobstructed view of the horizon. Alternatively head up high - somewhere like Mt Eden.
* Cloud cover will make it difficult to spot the comet. As well, the brighter the moon gets, the less visible it will become.
* The weather will be patchy during the week, with cloud predicted today from Northland to Manawatu, and rain and drizzle from tomorrow.
* Next week, there will be a new moon in the western sky that will make viewing difficult.

If you are in New Zealand then you should really try and get outside and take a look at this amazing Comet. I saw it last night, the sky was really clear so it was very easy to spot.

2007 Book Count

I love reading! And as of Sunday night just been, I have read 4 books this year! Not bad if I may say so myself. I think I'm going to go for a personal record this year. I finished the forth one outside on the deck in the sunshine and commented to mum how many I'd read, she laughed and said, "It all started with Golden Books."
They are these hard cover story books with Gold spines. Mum used to get me one when we would do grocery shopping as a kid. I have a stack of them in a box in our garage. Guess they got me into reading in the first place - Thanks Golden Books!! :P

Phil 4:13

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

... nuff said

Hunks o Spunk

What good looking, co-ordinated guys you all are! HAHA! Na, seriously. Looking good.

Summer time

Some people are real fans of winter and others can't stand the cold and wet. I'd have to say I'm evenly torn between both. I love that in winter you stay inside curled up in bed, listening to the rain outside. I love scarves, gloves, warm socks. Hot coffee or chocolate. Being warm inside and watching movies and reading good books.

Summer also has lots to offer. There is a definate freshness about summer that is nice. Lots of sunlight, long days, that call you outside after being indoors at work all day. Walks on the beach in the evening. BBQ's and mosquitos. The smell of freshly cut grass. Ice creams that melt faster than you can eat them. Sunburnt noses! (and arms and legs and shoulders!)
And for us in New Zealand... Christmas!

So, so sad

My poor blog! It has been 2 months since I've stepped foot here! I don't even think it's that I haven't had anything blog worthy to write about, I just forgot about it!

The U2 concert came and went, I've been on 2 more road trips, had the typical ups and downs at work and been to my first little kids birthday party since I was a kid myself.

Christmas is right around the corner, less than 2 weeks away now. I'm so behind in my shopping this year. I have a lot of work to do between now and then.

This is only short, the phone is ringing... I best get back to work.

Neglected

My poor blogspot has been very neglected! Can't believe the last time I posted something on here was in July! It's now halfway thru October! The year is just flying past. Christmas is just 2 months away!!! Kinda looking forward to the break to be honest.
I think I'm going to try post a little more often on here.