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!  

Hi all!

Heya everyone,

Things are continuing to chug along for us here. There isn't too much to report to be honest. We were blest to have the opportunity to house sit last week - which is always quite nice, it felt a little like a holiday for us, and a bit of a change of scenery so that was pretty fun. 

Josh has continued to have exams - last week he had Church History, and felt that it went pretty well. I think that he still has a few more over the next couple of weeks. It's in some respects nice that they are spread out a bit so he can really sink his teeth into studying for each exam. 

I know that I always seem to talk about the weather - haha - but it's continuing to cool down over here, and I am really enjoying it! All the trees are starting to change colour and they are so pretty. And it is super nice to step outside and there is a real chill in the air. This morning it was 7 degrees (celsius) when Josh left - and I checked the weather report and it is due to get down to 2 degrees later in the week! :D Exciting. Haha we'll see how long that excitement lasts for. 

I have been continuing to teach art classes to the homeschooling kids and it has been a lot of fun. We have been learning a bit about animation, so last week we made Thaumatropes. I even did a video to show you! :D So that was pretty fun. :)

I was reading my devotional today - currently I'm using two, haha they are both really good! One is called The Quiet Place, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and the other is called 'At the Feet of Jesus' by Joanna Weaver. They are both very good I'd recommend them. Today the one from Joanna Weaver's really struck me, so I thought that I'd share it with you here:

"One of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard came from David Ring, and evangelist born with cerebral palsy. "Why Mama?" David used to ask his mother when school kids teased him. "Why did I have to be born this way?" Although exceptionally bright, he was caught in a body that wouldn't do his bidding and was constantly tripped up by a stuttering tongue. 
God gave that sweet mother incredible wisdom as she taught her son that perhaps why wasn't the best question after all. 
"Asking why is like going to a well with a bucket and coming up empty every time," she told him. Instead, she said, the question should be, "What can I become?"
What a powerful, life-changing concept for all of us, especially when we're trapped and tripped up by the whys of life. Because when it comes right down to it, life is full of questions that don't have adequate answers.
Such questions haunted my young friend Tom. Though he loved Jesus, he struggled with the whys of his difficult life. 
But one day he showed me his Bible and a verse he'd underlined. "Now I know why my life is the way it is," Tom said. Pointing to the story of the man who had been born blind, Tom read John 9:3 aloud: "This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."
Oh that we all might have a vision to see beyond the misery of what is to the miracle of what we can become."   ~Joanna Weaver, 'At the Feet of Jesus'

This message really struck me. My Nana lived most of her life struggling with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Although the pain she experienced from this crippling disease must have caused her more pain than she ever let on, she allowed God to use her epic ways. Her testimony to others was that she handed over her life to Him, despite the pain, despite being seemingly so physically restricted, I saw that God used her so amazingly. Especially in being a blessing to other people and caring for them. What an awesome witness of what God is capable of doing with us in spite of our weaknesses. 

Although no where near as debilitating as what my Nana faced - Josh and I have had to come to terms over the past 8 years with not being able to have children. And too often I found myself asking why on earth God would withhold this blessing from us. However, what we instead have to learn, is that "this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in our lives". I hope that will be the case! Because in writing that, it's amazing to think of what an honour it is to be called to that. :) But we are works in progress, I can't begin to tell you how long it has taken me to get to the point where I acknowledge that. Hopefully God will continue to gently teach me more and more every day - like He already has been. I'm very thankful to Him for His patience with me! I'm sure we all have burdens like this that we are struggling to bear. I hope that you can learn to find a similar perspective to this - because it really is liberating. I assure you. :)

Well, that is all for now - hopefully will get to take some autumn photos for you over the next week and see if I can get them posted up. Take care everyone!