First week of lectures= complete! and what a week it was. Our speaker this week was Jesse Misa, who spoke on the Father heart of God and God's nature, personality, and character. Every day kept getting more and more interesting and by the end of the week I didn't want it to be over!
This week I just have really realized how much we need God. We go about our lives thinking that everything depends on the choices we make and worrying about everything from the price of gas to our school marks. We live in such a finite world yet we serve have an infinite, omnipotent, all potential, and omnipresent, unconditionally loving God. He is gentle, kind, and cares about the little things! I am learning more and more of His magnificence with everything I do and see here!!
Along with the awesome lectures this week, I also did a lot of other stuff! I climbed the mount in Tauranga with my small group and watched the sunset, it was a challenging climb but the view was amazing and we had such a good small group bonding time haha:) And my small group leader is from Canada which makes it even more awesome!
What I'm really excited to tell you about though, is what I did today! (Saturday here in NZ). Crossed something off of my bucket list- Hitchhiking. Yes mom, I hitchhiked and I'm alive to tell about it with even more motivation to do it again! ;) So here's the story. We got a ride in the trunk of Stefani's (a leader here) car to the bus stop and checked the time, and we had missed the bus by TWO MINUTES. The next one wasn't coming by for another hour and we needed to get into town cause our time was running shorter. So the group was unanimous on our decision- us 4 girls all in skirts and dresses were gunna try and get an old lady or something to pick us up. so all four of us stood on the side of the road and sure enough, after about ten minutes, a cute old lady in a big nice SUV stopped and asked us where we needed to go, and she was more than happy to give us a ride to downtown! SO happy and excited and stoked that we were actually doing this, we all got in thanking her and to our ear's content, she was listening to worship music. What a cute old lady. Turns out she knew about YWAM and was so interested in what we were doing and was just so happy to take time out of her day to give us a ride way into town and bless us. What a good God we serve!
The rest of the day we had an adventure around Tauranga, taking various buses and walking up and down the strand in the city and taking SO many good pictures! Man we had good laughs today.
This next week's topic is Hearing the voice of God and I am SO excited! this is supposed to be a really really awesome week and I'm so excited to see how it unfolds.
If you are reading this right now and have questions, fire me an email at desiraekarperien@gmail.com cause I really am not good at knowing what to put in these but I try :)
Blessings to you all!!
click to view my base's website!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Pictures for all you non-facebookers! :)
The Bay of Plenty: Tauranga
Ulla, Ashleigh, Kate, Me, and Jenessa at the beach at 8:30 pm!
my backyard
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
humidity;
First post from the land down unda! Well guys, its been a long time coming and a difficult and long trek here but I made it safe to Tauranga! The land is more beautiful than I ever could have imagined and I am more happy than I have almost ever been. The only thing that could make me any happier is if you were all here with me! ;)
This week has so far just been orientation stuff and getting to know one another, and real lectures start next week. There are a total of 25 or so students representing 10 different nations (!!!!) with a bunch more staff making it to something like 40 as a group! Everyone is so friendly and even though we have all known each other for only a few days, we feel like we have been together for much longer. Community living will do that to ya! Its been awesome learning the different dialects between aussie, kiwi, canadian and american english. Its great. So many misunderstandings for good memories!
The first thing I noticed when I came off of the plane was the HUMIDITY. It is so humid here, in comparison to Calgary, you have to take like four times less breaths to get the same amount of oxygen. SO AWESOME!! My hair goes crazy!
I have a major praise item! Praise the Lord for my travels here as I came across quite a few scary and difficult situations as I have never traveled alone like this before. At one point Air New Zealand was telling me that I was going to end up in Sydney Australia and not Auckland and I would have to pay a bunch of money to change that. In that moment I just started to panic and think of the worst case scenario. I soon realized that I came into this knowing that there were going to be many things like this that are going to be completely out of my control (unlike what I would usually want) and I cant do anything about it but surrender it to the Lord. So in that moment I just gave it all to Jesus and surrendered. A minute later the lady came back after talking to someone else and told me that she 'took care of it'. haha! Auckland bound I was. YAAAA!
One of the greatest things that has been happening is that I'm realizing how much I really am called to be here.
Background information: a few different people from home, at different times, had approached me with a word and a picture for me. all three said 'Freedom' and the picture included a bird(s). I also had been seeing birds in random things, like my cheese.. (?) and very vividly in dreams. I knew what it was for face value but I didnt know what it meant for me, deeper.
A few days ago, Linda Cowie (the director) was saying that this building was built in the shape of a bird (it does kinda look like one from a birds eye view) and their intention was to have it as a nest to nurture and help young people grow. Also I had been talking to Nesi, one of my leaders, and she was saying that God gave her a word for this group of young people, and it was 'Freedom'. I didnt say anything to her at the time as I still had to process all that was going on.
All of this never hit me until yesterday in worship when out of the blue, I just had this epic moment when I realized that I had 'landed in the nest' and this is where Jesus wants me to me. I was so overwhelmed that I burst into tears and wept before the Lord. It was so awesome. It's amazing the way that the Father loves us and how much he longs to give us all that belongs to him. its blowing me away. I feel such peace about being here that I didnt feel before.
My time here is getting better every day. Thank you so much to all of you who are supporting me through prayer. I really, really appreciate it.
peace and blessings from NZ:)
Desirae
This week has so far just been orientation stuff and getting to know one another, and real lectures start next week. There are a total of 25 or so students representing 10 different nations (!!!!) with a bunch more staff making it to something like 40 as a group! Everyone is so friendly and even though we have all known each other for only a few days, we feel like we have been together for much longer. Community living will do that to ya! Its been awesome learning the different dialects between aussie, kiwi, canadian and american english. Its great. So many misunderstandings for good memories!
The first thing I noticed when I came off of the plane was the HUMIDITY. It is so humid here, in comparison to Calgary, you have to take like four times less breaths to get the same amount of oxygen. SO AWESOME!! My hair goes crazy!
I have a major praise item! Praise the Lord for my travels here as I came across quite a few scary and difficult situations as I have never traveled alone like this before. At one point Air New Zealand was telling me that I was going to end up in Sydney Australia and not Auckland and I would have to pay a bunch of money to change that. In that moment I just started to panic and think of the worst case scenario. I soon realized that I came into this knowing that there were going to be many things like this that are going to be completely out of my control (unlike what I would usually want) and I cant do anything about it but surrender it to the Lord. So in that moment I just gave it all to Jesus and surrendered. A minute later the lady came back after talking to someone else and told me that she 'took care of it'. haha! Auckland bound I was. YAAAA!
One of the greatest things that has been happening is that I'm realizing how much I really am called to be here.
Background information: a few different people from home, at different times, had approached me with a word and a picture for me. all three said 'Freedom' and the picture included a bird(s). I also had been seeing birds in random things, like my cheese.. (?) and very vividly in dreams. I knew what it was for face value but I didnt know what it meant for me, deeper.
A few days ago, Linda Cowie (the director) was saying that this building was built in the shape of a bird (it does kinda look like one from a birds eye view) and their intention was to have it as a nest to nurture and help young people grow. Also I had been talking to Nesi, one of my leaders, and she was saying that God gave her a word for this group of young people, and it was 'Freedom'. I didnt say anything to her at the time as I still had to process all that was going on.
All of this never hit me until yesterday in worship when out of the blue, I just had this epic moment when I realized that I had 'landed in the nest' and this is where Jesus wants me to me. I was so overwhelmed that I burst into tears and wept before the Lord. It was so awesome. It's amazing the way that the Father loves us and how much he longs to give us all that belongs to him. its blowing me away. I feel such peace about being here that I didnt feel before.
My time here is getting better every day. Thank you so much to all of you who are supporting me through prayer. I really, really appreciate it.
peace and blessings from NZ:)
Desirae
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Here I am, Send me
Well guys, this is it. My last day in Canada.
It's so surreal that in around 18 hours I will be leaving for the airport to start my journey to Tauranga!! I have been getting all the last details sorted out and as of right now, I am officially, finally done packing! It's funny cause when I go to camp for 2 months, I bring 3 times as much stuff. haha
I'm feeling really good about this. I'm not nervous or anxious at all anymore. Right now in this moment, I feel complete peace. God is bigger than all these little details. I was able to sell my van for $450!! -my van had been given to me by one of my really good friends, Katie Walker (who is actually in the Philippines on DTS for her outreach!) and so I didnt really want to sell it because she was so generous in giving it to me. But I really felt like I had been given this van to use it for His glory so I did ask money for it, but only $450 for the new winter tires I had for it, and other parts I had replaced in it but God was so good to me in this process. Only about 30 mins after I posted someone called and bought it and was happy with it. Praise God!!
Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you to all my friends and family and the anonymous people who have financially contributed to me. Your kindness will not go unnoticed. May He bless you as abundantly as he has blessed me!!!
And on that note, Yes, many people have generously donated but I am still in need of funds. I'm still needing about $2,500. I have until the end of March to get these so take your time and please pray about this. If you are feeling called to give, there are many different ways of getting money to me:
1.Interac e-transfer. If you have online banking, transferring money to me is SO easy. I actually would prefer this way. All you need is my name, Desirae Karperien, and my email, desiraekarperien@gmail.com . You would log onto your online bank account, find interac e-transfer (it will be called this with any bank), and it will ask you for the amount, my name and email and also to set a security question that only I would be able to answer (something easy and straight forward!). I would then get a notification email, and be able to click a link and accept your money that way! Incredibly easy.
2. Check- made out to me, Desirae Karperien, or my mom, Karen Karperien, given to my mom and she will deposit it straight into my account. If you need to get ahold of her, our home number is 403 271 6212.
3. Cash- can also be given to my mom to deposit for me.
Thank you also to the people who have donated supplies to me!! Rebecca for the hiking backpack, Kelly for the duffle bag, and Leah for making me a skirt!
_______________________________________________________________________________
Anyways, the next post from me will be coming from Tauranga, NZ! So long Canada!
It's so surreal that in around 18 hours I will be leaving for the airport to start my journey to Tauranga!! I have been getting all the last details sorted out and as of right now, I am officially, finally done packing! It's funny cause when I go to camp for 2 months, I bring 3 times as much stuff. haha
I'm feeling really good about this. I'm not nervous or anxious at all anymore. Right now in this moment, I feel complete peace. God is bigger than all these little details. I was able to sell my van for $450!! -my van had been given to me by one of my really good friends, Katie Walker (who is actually in the Philippines on DTS for her outreach!) and so I didnt really want to sell it because she was so generous in giving it to me. But I really felt like I had been given this van to use it for His glory so I did ask money for it, but only $450 for the new winter tires I had for it, and other parts I had replaced in it but God was so good to me in this process. Only about 30 mins after I posted someone called and bought it and was happy with it. Praise God!!
Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you to all my friends and family and the anonymous people who have financially contributed to me. Your kindness will not go unnoticed. May He bless you as abundantly as he has blessed me!!!
And on that note, Yes, many people have generously donated but I am still in need of funds. I'm still needing about $2,500. I have until the end of March to get these so take your time and please pray about this. If you are feeling called to give, there are many different ways of getting money to me:
1.Interac e-transfer. If you have online banking, transferring money to me is SO easy. I actually would prefer this way. All you need is my name, Desirae Karperien, and my email, desiraekarperien@gmail.com . You would log onto your online bank account, find interac e-transfer (it will be called this with any bank), and it will ask you for the amount, my name and email and also to set a security question that only I would be able to answer (something easy and straight forward!). I would then get a notification email, and be able to click a link and accept your money that way! Incredibly easy.
2. Check- made out to me, Desirae Karperien, or my mom, Karen Karperien, given to my mom and she will deposit it straight into my account. If you need to get ahold of her, our home number is 403 271 6212.
3. Cash- can also be given to my mom to deposit for me.
Thank you also to the people who have donated supplies to me!! Rebecca for the hiking backpack, Kelly for the duffle bag, and Leah for making me a skirt!
_______________________________________________________________________________
Anyways, the next post from me will be coming from Tauranga, NZ! So long Canada!
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