Mid-America Info Videos

Hi all,

I thought that I would follow Albert & Hanneke's lead, and share with you the Mid-America Information videos that have been put up on Youtube. You might even spot us Kiwis in them! ;)

These videos are really nicely put together and give a little glimpse into life at seminary for the students, and even the wives. : )

Like Albert & Hanneke said though - you are always more then welcome to come visit us and see for yourselves! :D

Spring has sprung!

Well it feels like an age since my last post, which is probably true - but things have been pretty busy! This past semester has gone by very quickly. Josh had his spring break last week - which I had hoped would mean some time that we could go out on a day trip together, but he had exams to study for and assignments to write, so it ended up being a regular week. But he made really good progress on his work - it amazes me how hard he works, but I'm thankful for it! 

Another thing that we are very thankful for at the moment is the warmer weather! The grass is turning a healthy green again, and (dare I say it) the white winter snow seems almost like a dream. It's just amazing to see how much the landscape can change in a short period of time. And there is something so cheering about longer sunshiny days, and warmth in the sun - it was strange to get into the car and discover it to be toasty warm (as opposed to frigid). So after experiencing temperatures like the ones that I recorded below - we are now back up into the positives and today got up to wonderful 15 degrees. :)

Brrrr!

One of the last big snowfalls that we had in February

We were really blessed to be treated to a delicious pizza dinner with some of our Kiwi friends from church. They took us to a famous local pizzaria which had a really great atmosphere and very delicious pizzas. 

Josh enjoying the tasty pizza

Before all of the snow melted I also got to go sledding with the Couperus girls! It was a lot of fun. A cold day, but we trekked up and down the hill and had a lot of fun.  

Zara at the top of the hill

Kate with her rosy cold cheeks! (and you can see Zara going down the hill in the background)

We had a couple of big inner tubes to slide on, as well as a couple of boards that were kind of like boogie boards (just the snow versions of them)

The view from the bottom of the hill!

Now we'll just have to wait until next winter to go again. :) Here are a few more pictures that we took over the past couple of months. For a combined Valentines Day/Wedding Anniversary present to ourselves we decided to go out for dinner to a local cafe and enjoyed a bowl of chili - that they very cleverly decorated with a heart. ;)

Some of Josh's snow-blowing exploits at the seminary

Josh and Albert managed to convince the seminary to fly the NZ flag on the flagpole again for Waitangi Day. NZ represent! :D

Our Valentines Dinner - they always serve the meals here with a massive pickle. 

Mountains of snow that Josh had to shovel through over the winter

A cool picture that Josh took :)

The other news we have is that we have had our summer internship confirmed! We are heading to Canada! And not just any part of Canada but British Columbia - which is about as far away from where we currently are as you can get. :) It is apparently a really beautiful part of the country, and we are really excited to have the opportunity to travel there. The church is the United Reformed Church in Abbotsford, which is about an hour west of Vancouver. We are so thankful to this church for taking us for the summer, and we (in particular, Josh) are really looking forward to working alongside the pastor, and Josh will have a lot of opportunities to preach in the 10 or so weeks that we will be there. It's such an incredible gift to be able to experience this, and for the church to take in a first year intern is amazingly generous. We are really looking forward to the experience.

So below is a map of the road trip that we will be going on. It's a biggie! So your prayers would be really appreciated as we plan and prepare for a big trip and also the time that Josh will be preparing for regular preaching as well as our travel once we are on our way!

According to Google Maps it's about a 34 hour drive

Something else that I am kind of excited about is that in the pictures that I have looked up of Abbotsford, it looks a little like NZ...

Abbotsford = mountains, hills and rivers!! Hurrah!!

Don't you think so? Cool huh! It'll potentially be like a little trip home! So that is a little update from us. We will try to keep you posted as things progress and we get some more things arranged for our trip. In the meantime we really appreciate all your support and are so thankful to be a part of a worldwide family. Plus our first year in the US is almost over, time has flown! We are enjoying it here - but don't worry, we look forward to coming home in another two years. ;)

Til next time!  

2014 and a new semester begins

Hi everyone,

Yes it has been a while since we updated, and a few people have asked if we are still going to keep this blog updated. We are hoping to, but I guess part of the reason that we haven't updated for a while is that we haven't really done anything. Haha. :)

Josh's second semester officially started today, although over the past 3 1/2 weeks he has had Intensive Hebrew classes, so he has been keeping busy. I never realised before just how much ancient Hebrew sounds like Orc. Oftentimes Josh will be studying in the other room and muttering words to himself and I wonder if he is actually conversing with a stray Orc who was wandering past (then I remember that we aren't in New Zealand, and we only have Orcs there. The US might have squirrels and raccoons but we have Orcs and Elves right?)(and a dragon). It definitely makes for interesting sound effects anyway. 

Rewinding back to December a bit - we had a really great holiday period (or vacation as they call it over here), really just in so far as we were able to really spend some nice time together. During term time, and especially at the end of the semester the seminary students get crazy busy, and I wasn't seeing much of Josh for a couple of months before he went on holiday. So it was really nice over the break to make the most of being able to just be together and reconnect. 

We were really blest to have been able to celebrate a Kiwi Christmas with the other NZ families from church - complete with delicious roast lamb (also from New Zealand!). That was a lot of fun and it was really nice to be able to spend time all together - as all of us have family back home that we were missing spending Christmas with. 

Our Kiwi Christmas with the Couperus's and Vooys's :D

Then on Christmas Day we were very kindly invited to our good friends from church to have a delicious meal, great fellowship and even games with their family. It was a lot of fun and really nice to have church family to be able to celebrate the day with. 

You may have heard about a 'polar vortex' that has been hitting the northern (and even some of the southern) parts of the US. We have most definitely been effected by that. The temperatures have been getting down into the -20's and we have had a few groups of days where the temperature dropped down to -26 to -30 (without windchill). On the first weekend that the 'vortex' hit it was at the start of January, and we were asked to go and shovel the seminary because there was so much snow, and with the temperatures being so cold, the longer the snow was left the harder it would be to clear away from the paths. So we wrapped up with multiple layers of clothes and trekked over the train tracks. Our car wouldn't start - and there was a 'state of emergency' that had been declared so that people weren't actually supposed to be driving because of the weather. Plus the seminary carpark and a lot of the streets around it hadn't been ploughed, so we wouldn't have been able to drive in anyway. 

Needless to say it was a very cold trip, and it was my first shoveling experience (Josh had already done it a few times at the seminary) so we were broken in with the big stuff! There were drifts of snow that were halfway up the front doors of the school - so it was a big job, but we had fun, and once you get working then you warm up! :D

On the way back home Josh took this picture above - it my hair was freezing from the cold wind. And yes, that is actually a sock on my hand - I only had one pair of gloves that had a couple of holes in them, so I took a spare pair of socks to shove on if need be. And I'm glad I had them! 

Josh started Hebrew a couple of days after our shoveling experience, and because of the cold was taking the car in the mornings. That meant that I didn't have a way of getting around, so have pretty much just stayed at home. Which I didn't mind considering the temperatures outside!

Icicles from our car attaching themselves to the carpark

The standard view that we have had from our house for the past month (the snow has just become a bit dirtier now)

Icicles hanging from along the edge of our apartment. They look almost fake!

Otherwise I have started up teaching the art classes again for a local homeschooling group. Which is a lot of fun. The kids are great and the Mums are lovely. It's nice to spend time with them and get to know them better. 

I am also still going to be leading a little group of 4-5 year olds while their Mums are at Bible study - it hasn't started yet this year because we keep on getting held up by the weather, but I'm looking forward to doing that again. 

With the long days indoors, and the fact that it has been pretty much impossible to get outdoors for walks or anything - we were noticing that our health hasn't been great. We weren't eating much because we weren't doing much - and were almost going into hibernation mode. Plus being on a tight budget means that I've been trying to keep the grocery bill as low as possible, which makes it tricky to eat consistently in a healthy way (well that's what I've found anyway, maybe I'm just a bit useless at cooking. Haha). Plus in mid-December Josh's Dad had a heart attack, from which providentially he has recovered from really well - but it gave me a bit of a reminder that I need to make sure I'm feeding Josh better, because heart troubles do run in his family. So having said all that, we decided to invest in a gym membership. There is one that opened up just in December that is quite close to us, and the membership is only $10 per month (yup you read that correctly, it's very cheap) with no cancellation fee. I have started babysitting again, and Josh is still working for the seminary, so we were able to pay for this with some of our own 'spare change' over here. Josh has been going for a couple of weeks now, and I think already he has been feeling better. I only signed up yesterday, so am looking forward to getting some more energy and feeling a bit more healthy! 

So back to seminary - Josh is really looking forward to this semester. It sounds like they are going to be doing some very interesting classes and getting stuck in to some more practical stuff - such as pastoral counseling, and they will be starting to write more sermons and exhorting as well. So it's going to be a really educational 5 months I think! 

The next big step is that the summer internships are starting to come out. These are opportunities that the students have to go and work in a church for about 10 weeks - so they get some experience preaching, meeting with congregants and assisting and working with the active pastor (if there is one - some of the internships are at vacant churches or church-plant kind of situations). So that could really end up being anywhere in the US - and at this point we have no clue where we will be. I guess it will be just anywhere that they'll take us! It would be great to have the opportunity to go to a church that is different from what we would experience back home (so perhaps a super big church or something along those lines), however, I think the biggest thing that Josh really wants at this time is mentorship - so to be able to work alongside someone who he could learn a lot from, and hopefully glean some of their wisdom and experience. So we will keep you posted about that. 

Here's a little comparison for you - Josh's school in the above photo during the Autumn, and taken from the same spot last week. :D Pretty amazing huh!

Thank you again for your support everyone. And your continued prayers for Josh's studies are so appreciated. I read that awesome verse the other day from Isaiah 26:3:

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." 

That is really our biggest prayer at the moment - that we will be able to continue to trust that God will provide for all our needs, as He already has been amazingly - and that we will be able to keep focus on why we are here - not just in the US, but here in general. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And at a time when it is easy to go a little stir-crazy because of being cooped up indoors, and to miss family and home, the temptation is far too great to allow ourselves to get a bit despondent or experience self-doubt. 

But it's because of instead of 'staying' our minds on Christ, we are allowing ourselves to become self-focused. It makes such a difference to change that perspective, reshuffle that focus, and get back on track. So that even if our situation hasn't changed at all - suddenly the outlook, purpose and motivation is all different because it's God's - which gives us awesome hope, meaning and unfailing confidence in the fact that we are here for a reason. Very cool stuff. 

This is ending up long - so I will sign off here, but I will try and be a little more regular with the updates I promise! :) And if you are in NZ at the moment - enjoy some of that beautiful Kiwi sunshine and moderate weather for me! Haha. Take care everyone!

Life goes on...

Well, we are still here! We are surviving and continuing to enjoy the USA. Things have started to get busy as Josh's studies continue to intensify, and I get some more commitments. 

There has been a bit of change in temperature over the past week, and despite having highs in the 30's last week, Friday dropped to 18 degrees as the high, and we are now mostly in the 20's - which has actually been really nice! It means we can ditch the aircon, and just have the windows open. So we'll make the most of that until the cold really sets in!

Last weekend we had an amazing opportunity to go and visit California for a few days. Some very good and generous friends from the US/NZ were over there, and they gave us flights to go and visit with them. We were super thankful for the opportunity to spend time with them, and it was cool to see another part of the States. It was also nice to have a short time away together, probably for the last time in a long time as Josh's studies won't allow it from now on (which is fine, because we are here to study anyway) - but it was such a treat to be able to visit. The Californian coast was beautiful (just like in the movies hehe) and it was really nice to see the beach again. 

It was amazing to see how different the landscape was in comparison to Indiana - I'll give you a bit of a run-down:

Indiana/Illinois:

-  Flat
-  Farmland
-  Green
-  Big trees - like oaks etc
-  Farm style houses, made of wood, or brick

Orange County, California:
-  Hills
-  Colorful flowering gardens
-  Palm Trees & Eucalyptus
-  Rocky scrub hills (which kind of reminded me of pictures I've seen of Australia)
-  Terracotta mud-brick/stucco Spanish style villas & beach houses

Those are just summaries obviously - but illustrate how these places are almost opposites! 

I have also been continuing to do some domesticated stuff. I just want to put a little N.B. in here and say that I am not an amazing baker or cook. And I have been enjoying having some more time to invest in getting better at it. I just follow recipes and have the assistance of kitchen gadgets to help me make food that thankfully is edible! Plus I have the added blessing of having a husband that is not fussy (thank you Lord!).

So anyway, I have been trying out some American recipes because some of them that I have tried at other people's houses are most excellent. In fact, I decided that I wanted to learn to cook some more American meals so I went out and managed to get (on special I might add), the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook - which seems to be the equivalent of the Edmonds Cookbook in the US (in so far as most people seem to own it).

And I have discovered Snickerdoodles. My new most favourite cookies (plus isn't that a most excellent name? Haha). If I could I would write the name with sparkles and glowy lights, because that's just how it feels it should be written. These are basically vanilla cinnamon sugar cookies. Which sums up the deliciousness of them really.

Josh has been continuing to study like crazy. He has been getting stuck into Greek and Hebrew again, plus there is quite a bit of reading for his other classes now too. He gets pretty tied up all day, and then in the evenings - but we have meals together which is a really good time to catch up. We have also been able to have some of the other students over for dinner which is a good opportunity to get to know them better. There are some really cool people who are studying over here. And it's been an awesome blessing for Josh to be able to find some people who he can study with really well. He has also been really enjoying his Professors. These guys have a looooooot of knowledge in their heads, and are very good at imparting it back to the students. So although the workload seems like it is a huge amount at times for Josh (and it is) - we are just constantly aware of how blest we are to be able to study and learn from the people over here. 

Plus it has been fun to be able to spend a little more time with the other Kiwi students! I pinched this photo off Albert & Hanneke's blog - which you can check out here. :)

Well that is all for now - but there will be more a little later in the week! :D