A drop of serious in the bucket of 'yolo'.

I've been thinking quite a lot lately; a charming feature in ladies of today's society, so I'm told. My thoughts revolve predominantly around the grand blank canvas that is my future. If someone were to begin sketching a piece of art, change their mind partway through and start over without erasing the lines, it would look something like my life-canvas. Muddled lines, endless possibilities; maybe some semblance of art is visible. The result depends entirely on what the artist wants to end up with. When I look back at my choices in five years, what do I want to see that has happened in my life? I have goals I want to accomplish, such as getting an education and working for a time in different countries, as well as commit as much time to full-time missions and ministry as God calls me to. I understand that there are important parts of life, especially as a citizen of a first-world country, that I am privileged to have access to. I have no intention of completely disregarding the blessings I've been born into. I just don't want to let life pass me by, having plans for my grand blank canvas, all the while having the canvas become covered in shades of monotony and the intent to 'get around to it' or, worse yet, yellowed with age and regret. 

Let there be boldness. Let there be every lovely colour. Let there be sheer joy. 

Let there be the excitement of new experiences and every possibility under the sun. 

For those of you frozen with fear of the unknown, I encourage you to walk out of that and never look back. God has so much more in store for you if you're just willing to get your feet moving. You're a brilliant human being with a dazzling life ahead of you.

 "A warm body don't mean I'm alive / I wanna thrive, not just survive." --Thrive by Switchfoot

Room 3 has pets!

When you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. 

Does this apply to writing as well? Nothing good to write, don't write anything?

Probably not. Some smart alec will come up with good reasons to keep writing: "It's beneficial to your... Brain. Duh." Thanks guys. THANKS.

Here's the deal: I don't always have enlightening things to write about. That's a lie, actually. I OFTEN have many enlightening things to write about but I have neither the time nor the inclination to write about them all. Whew. That's better. At least it makes me sound more smarterer. That's what we aim for when blogging, right? Gotta spread all the increasingly difficult-to-find insight and wisdom that can be gleaned from the mind of a wee lady with big dreams. Hah. Sure, Kirsten. That's why we're here.

I definitely want to write more blogs. It's going to take a considerable amount of self-discipline so I'll need all the encouragement you can spare! I also want to take more pictures and post them here. That one's not as easy to do since I forget my camera always therefore I take pictures never. 

But here are some from my webcam!!

Just the cutest ever. I KNOW. I can barely stand it. On a sidenote, I'm tired and I'm going to post this before sleeping and proofread it tomorrow, so if nothing makes sense know now that I don't care. So there. 

I really hope you weren't expecting anything profound this time around. Or informative. This is positively neither of those things. 

OH!! I know what to tell you about! Okay. This is a good one. SO! There are a lot of spiders in our room. But not those nasty huge ones that give you nightmares, just these spindly ones that aren't exactly small but aren't particularly scary either. And one sleeps above my bed near my feet and he's like my little friend but we respect each other and keep our distance because he's a spider and I'm a human and we know good insect-person boundaries. It's a healthy interaction, consisting primarily of me sending the occasional hello to him, as well as blowing on his web when he looks bored. In return he sometimes wiggles his legs at me. It's not animal abuse, I can read spider body language quite well and know exactly when they're bored and when they're just napping. I like to think of it as giving him a spider massage. OH MY WORD what if it's a girl. I hadn't thought of that one before. Ugh. Whatever. He won't mind. He's got a very masculine... Leg..s... Must be a man! So. Mandy wanted to kill all the spiders in the whole room because she's just anti-bug unless it's a cockroach and she can relive her Hawaiian childhood and pull its legs off. Ugh. But Maryam and I know better, that these nice lil' guys kill the flies that find their way into our little habitat so we like 'em! But anyways, the climax of the story is that my spidey disappeared and a couple days later a new, smaller one showed up... So I think he went and found a child to take his place and is now colonizing more spider homes elsewhere, which has begun to worry me slightly. That doesn't worry me as much as the animal noise that come from our ceiling every morning, though. We think there's a possum partying it up overhead. POSSUMS! Our base cook rescued a baby possum the other day and it's ridiculously cute! But the adult ones are kinda big and freaky looking. 

That wasn't as good of a story as I was hoping it would be. Too DARN BAD, guys. I'm not even going to proofread this. I genuinely hope you will read my blog next time I share it. Have faith that they won't all be this chaotic. 

Maybe.

Brace yourselves, people. It's a long one.

So here we are, at the beginning of week 5 of my DTS... And I've only written one blog. At least you knew that would happen, if you remember anything about my last twenty promises to try and post more often. But now I have some catching up to do in regards to filling you in on weeks 1 through 4! Oh my lanta, this is why I should BLOG MORE OFTEN. Alrighty. Let's begin, shall we? 

No biggie. My views on the daily.

Week 1: Soooo our speaker was a guy. Yep. He spoke on stuff. Yup. Cool! It went well.

Week 2: Haha just kidding. Alright. Let's try that again. Just gotta get in the ZOOOOONE.

Whew. Yep. Zoning. Just wait for it. I might have to leave and come back to this. Gimme a sec.

Maybe I need some pump-up music. Thaaaaat might help... Or it could just turn into a dance party. Either way, I'm sure I won't be disappointed. ALRIGHT!

Week 1: Our speaker's name was Cheyne! He spoke on the Nature & Character of God. It was good! I learned so much every week I can't even start to explain it all here. But I have to admit, this was kind of a strange week. Our lectures only started on Wednesday, because we had just arrived at the base. So throughout the week was kind of an intro to life here on the base as well as getting used to the lecture format, etc. Yeah! We visited some waterfalls close to here at some point that week, I don't really remember when... And on the weekend we visited a beach near Whangarei called Waipu Beach. The surfers surfed; I was jealous. I got pushed into the ocean; I was unimpressed. So in the end I just went swimming. Yup. Sounds typical of my life. OH! Fun fact: In Maori, "wh" is pronounced as "f" soooo Whangarei is pronounced kinda like "Fungaray" but.... Better sounding. Anyways... End of week 1!!

I'm definitely in good company here! Mandy on the left, Maryam in the middle.

  

Surfers at Waipu beach.

Anyone recognize that bro in the middle? It's Fraser!
Tara on the left, Conner up top, Matthew on the right.

We just love each other a lot.

Guys. GUYS. I was at BAG-END in the SHIRE.
My life has been made.

Week 2: This week was insaaaaaane for most of us. We drove for 4 hours to Matamata, which is where our DTS was formerly held, and stayed at the base there for the week. Why, you ask?! Let me tell you! A team called Circuit Riders came to speak at a bible college in Tauranga (45 minutes away from Matamata) so we were joining with them and another DTS called YWAM Bethlehem. This was Evangelism week. Oh yeah. OH YEAH. So. Long story short, we had classes all of Monday and then on Tuesday afternoon we were sent out on the streets to share the Gospel. WHAT?! WHAAAAT?! I know, right? I was one of THOSE people, telling random strangers that Jesus loves them. It was hard to do. And it was stressful. Buuuuuut I can see how it would get easier after a time. I am literally NEVER going to see those people again, and everyone needs to be told how much God loves them. Sooooo it went well. The same procedure repeated for Wednesday (just classes) and then Thursday (more street evangelism). Nice thing was that we got to walk around a place called Mount Manganui, with it's beautiful beaches. That was sweet! AND! On Friday... I went.. To.. HOBBITON! Yeah bro. Real life. It happened. It was beautiful. And there is a plethora of pictures on facebook to prove it. On Saturday the surfers went surfing again, the music students went back to our base and us OP peeps went for another waterfall hike. This one was a biiiiit more intense and vertical than the last one, but we made it! And I didn't get a picture at the top, so my baaaad! Sunday we came back to our base in Paparoa and HALLELUJAH it was good to be home.

I love Tara.  She makes weirder faces than I do!

Week 3: You bored of this blog yet? I might be. But if I don't finish it now... I never will! So onward and upward and whatnot. Alright. Hearing the Voice of God with Josh Cole! Let's be real. It was AWESOME. So many people just got.. I don't even know. Totally were able to release past stuff from their lives, and lots of healing began in people. SO GOOD TO SEE! Ain't nobody got time for that crap in their lives, right?! That's what the DTS is for! After the finish an amazing lecture week, the OP crew went to a high ropes course! That was mega fun, even though I gotta say... I diiiiiiid struggle with letting go of the guide ropes, even though I was clipped on and everything. Just that mentality of potentially falling to your death... Wasn't so fond of that. The highest course was 14 meters up, man. Don't even laugh at that. Afterwards we went to these hot pools, which was niiiiice and then bam! End of week 3.



Week 4: RELATIONSHIPS!!!! Ahahahaha it was terrific. I can't even describe how terrific. And hilarious. Because in some Christian circles, people tend to think that 'sex' is a baaaaad word. That it's a taboo topic, for marriage only. Well, the lovely, polite Marty Emmett, in his kind and unoffensive way, told us otherwise. Kidding. He wasn't unoffensive or polite about it. He told us he actually WANTED to offend us, because it would stimulate us to think about why we were offended. He spoke a lot on how we should be more aware of differences between guys and girls, how guys are idiots, but girls are just plain silly. It's always good to hear someone lay out in a truthful way how the world has altered our view on relationships from being godly and selfless, to self-centered and polluted by unrealistic ideas. Pretty awesome lectures, if you ask me. It was a pretty huge learning time for everyone, I think, but especially the girls. So many girls in our society aren't treated properly and we don't even realize it sometimes. This week shifted a LOT of past hurts and created a new culture of honour on our base and hopefully in all of the student's lives. The guys even held a "Brunch for the Beloveds" and all the ladies on the base got to dress up and be escorted, served, and honoured by these brothers in Christ. The guys were actually shocked that we liked it as much as we did. They said they literally thought of every single cheesy thing they could do (candles, chocolate, flowers, serenading us) and... Went for it. Yeah. That easy. And so FUN! All the guys enjoyed it just as much as we did, so it was an awesome start to our day. Us girls also received a lot of wisdom from Marty's wife Candice and their friend Carrie, who spoke to us about being women who fear the Lord. We have all been so blessed by this team! As for this weekend, we did something called "Burn Night" starting on Friday at 8 pm and going to Saturday at 8 pm. 24 hours of worship! We kind of went in shifts, people signed up so there would be at least 3-4 people in the room at all times, with someone leading in 1-hour sets. It was pretty amazing, that was the only thing on our agenda for Saturday so when we weren't in the worship room, it was just a lovely relaxing day. And now it's Sunday! 

So here we are, about to start week 5. This week the topic is the Holy Spirit. It's going to be good, of course. And it's a free weekend coming up, so HEY I MIGHT GET TO SUUUUUUUUUURFF!!! Yessss.

Rugby in the field. The bunkhouse is the green one on the left!

That would be THE room. My bed is to the right.
This picture was taken our second day here, we've added some decorations since!

I feel as though I've accomplished something today. Let me know if you have any questions about where I'm living or what we're doing! Also, I've only received one postcard. ONE. Seriously. 

Kirsten Hitchcock

YWAM ZION

504 Wairere Rd.

RD1

New Zealand

0571

Write me. Something. ANYTHING. Give me your address, I'll write you back! I love you all! I don't miss you all, though. I'm too busy for that. Heh. Sorry. But not really. I mean, I'm in New Zealand, learning about God's call for my life and how to live it out. Why would I be sorry?! Be blessed, people, and keep praying for me! Outreach locations are going to be released soon, so let's see where else this wild ride is going to take me! Hugs all around!!!

The first of many to come.... Maybe. If you're lucky.

The journey here has been an interesting one, to say the least.  Throughout all my flight transfers and security checks there wasn’t anything in particular that went WRONG.... But I did somehow get “randomly selected” for EVERY SINGLE secondary security check. Hmmmmm. Good thing I had lots of time between my flights! There was also a bit of an issue when boarding the flight from San Francisco to Auckland. The air conditioning on the aircraft wasn’t working, so before we could take off (but aaaafter everyone had boarded) they decided it was a safety issue.... So they got everyone off the plane and we sat in the lounge for an hour. (Sidenote: It was a Boeing 747, with 370 passengers. Offloading and reloading everyone took a while). Eventually we flew, I slept, we landed, I was happy, and shazam, I’m in New Zealand. I was picked up at the airport by a staff member and taken to a YWAM base in Auckland where everyone was meeting before we all hopped in vans and headed north to our base. The base we’re on used to be called YWAM Oakridge, but is now being used for our DTS, YWAM Zion. Instead of explaining the base to you, I’ll just show you some pictures!! Not right now though. I haven’t taken any yet....

We’ve already been exposed to the culture as a group and it is SO cool. To welcome us onto the land, we were led onto the property by one of the girls who lives here, and she sung a Maori welcome song as we walked. Everyone else from the base was standing in a group, but with the men separate.... And you might guess what happened next... HAKA!! Bahahahaha man.. so awesome. The staff men did a ‘welcoming’ haka for us, but it was pretty much just as scary as all of the intimidation ones that are done before rugby games. Afterwards, the staff women did a welcome song for us which we were supposed to respond to with our own song, according to Maori tradition. We sang Happy Birthday back...

Now for the PEOPLE!!! There are 26 students in YWAM Zion 2013. Most of those are Outdoor Pursuits students, including myself. There are only 4 Surfing students, and about 7 Music & Worship students. And what a GREAT GROUUUUUPPP!! There seem to be quite a few students here that are just out of high school, and one newly married couple, and thennnnn the rest of us. Rooms were assigned to us before we arrived, and I’m in a room with two other girls. One is Mandy, who grew up in Hawaii and now lives in Tennessee and she’s 18. The other is Maryam from southern Germany, who is also 18.  Both are beautiful, sweet girls who I’m soooo excited to be sharing a room with. Maryam even brought tea for Mandy and me this morning while we were still in bed. Ohhhh yeeeaaahh. I have hit the roomie jackpot yet again! (Shoutout to the Nanaimo roomies!!! Love you Oceana, Elizabeth and Jordan!! xoxo). 

ANYWAYS. That's all for now. Love you all, email me updates on your life at: 

kirsten.afh@gmail.com

I will be checking my email much more regularly than my facebook, so that would be great! You can also send mail to me at:

Kirsten Hitchcock

YWAM ZION

504 Wairere Rd.

RD 1

Paparoa, Northland

New Zealand

0571

I would LOOOOOOVE to receive pictures to put up next to my bed!!! Send 'em soon so they get here soon!!

So much love, from Kirsten!!!

ocean infection.

"Go outside," I thought, "it will be lovely and sunny and charming." So outside I went, only to find it was lovely and sunny and windy (which is fine, but makes reading a book rather difficult) and LOUD. I could practically hear the yelling, "LOOK! LISTEN! I'm a CITY! I have so many people and am packed FULL of convenience and bustling life!" Screw you, city. Take your convenience somewhere else. I just want to be outside sometimes, in what used to be known as naaatuuuuure. I know I'll be on an island for the summer still... But hey. This girl likes her ocean time.

"You appreciate the tang found in a breath of ocean air, accompanied by the water's relentless heartbeat; wave after wave hitting the shore. Sometimes it pounds mercilessly, other times it comes as an unstoppable swell from the depths of the ocean, only to become a gentle caress as it meets your toes for the first time. No introductions are necessary, only first impressions matter. Maybe they meet on a day when the ocean is her cold, harsh self. Your toes curl away and into the safety of your sole. But then there are warmer, playful days. Good first impressions that fill you with giddy joy, up from your toes until you're so full you squeal so the whole world knows just how well you and the ocean get along. You love her; that magnificent body of water, with all her numerous facets. And every time you leave her side for calmer, more humble, surroundings you miss her temper and sass. You long to be near her, to see her constantly shifting moods. Kirsten, you are an island girl through and through. And that's for life. Your moods are her moods, and you will always need her to be near to you. Don't forget the ocean, wherever you are; whoever you become. She is who you are."

A rare glimpse into the sometimes poetic mind of Kirsten.

Morning reading: Psalms 10-16

There are themes of both encouragement and despair in these passages. We are told about the promises of God, reassuring us that the Lord is just and faithful. But everyone has those moments of tiredness and sorrow, when it seems as though we have been abandoned to deal with our suffering alone. Yet Oswald Chambers writes, "We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character." These secret places are often only revealed in the midst of grief and trials. We have to see our own shortcomings before we can release them and allow Christ to enter in and make our hearts His. God knows how low we sometimes must fall in order to open ourselves to His Spirit and workings.

Take heart, for He is sovereign.

Tuesday talkin'.

IT'S THAT TIME OF THE MONTH AGAIN. Yup. Tiiiiiime to write a blog post. Not that I'm even blogging every month. It's been sporadic. And yes, I bring it up every time I post. Please accept my humble, yet profuse, apologies. Sorrysorrysorry.

Islanders are funny. Soooo it started snowing today at about 1 pm. At 3:08 I received an email stating that  our campus is closed due to SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS. It's laughable, really. An inch of snow equates school closure here. To be fair, our snow is rather wet and slippery and it can freeze and break two thousand student's legs, leading to numerous lawsuits and unhappy kiddos. Buuuut it's still just an inch of snow. Maybe I'm a bit sad because I have no classes today anyways so nothing was cancelled for me :( If it sticks, I'll have another free day tomorrow though!

Hah. And this is the education I pay for.

Although, as some of you have found out..... I will no longer be attending this school after this semester is done. I'm gonna go to NEW ZEALAND! I want to do a YWAM, and travel a biiiiit and blah blah blah, just exciting stuff like that. It's a bit stressful though, I want to go to the right YWAM base and I need money for it and I don't know what to do the year AFTER all that.... The answer is so obvious though. Which is almost worse... 

Prayer. Duh. Faith. DUH. Alls I gotta do is BELIEEEEVE. Things will work out.

YEAH, well why is it so stressful then? Huh huh huuuuhhh? The key to being able to have faith in times of stress and trials is to pray. Not some sort of piddly, "Oh hey God, I want you to work everything out, and when it does, I'll drop you a thank you note." We need to invest our time in some serious one-on-one relationship-building prayer. Yes, God already knows what's up. TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT ANYWAYS. And liiiiiisten. Abide in Him. Be still and rest in His presence. 

But hey, I'm not preaching at you. I'm fully aware that I need to bring this into my life as a permanent habit, trust me. I am working on it and I'm SO excited to see how things pan out in the future. God is good. All the time. I'll leave you with a quote from the devotional I'm doing right now:

"I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth." -James O. Fraser


**Please let me know what I can pray for in your life, friend!