First year of study and traveling to Canada!

Well it has been an eventful past month to say the least! Over May Josh had his final exams for the year - which meant that he has been keeping very busy with study. We also were preparing for our summer assignment, so I was kept busy at home cleaning, and planning for the trip as well as trying to make sure the car was up-to-date and things would be covered in the time we would be away. We had a number of friends who were moving and planning for travel also, so we were able to give them a bit of help in that process. 

The seminary had commencement - which was really great to attend in support of this year's graduates. It was somewhat intimidating and humbling to imagine that, Lord willing, that is where we will be in just another 2 years. 

This year has gone very quickly - and we are very thankful and fully acknowledge how every good thing, every new experience, and all the new things we have been learning have come to us by God's grace - through the love and service of His people. It is one of the most humbling things to live in full and complete trust in God's provision - and I think a very important thing for us to experience as seminary students, and looking into pastoral service in the future. Every day we are aware of the fact that we are here by His grace, and because of the support of the people back home and in the US and now Canada! Everything we have is from His hand - and we are very aware of it because of this experience. 

I am currently writing from our summer home in Abbotsford, British Columbia - and as I look out the window I can see beautiful green fields, tall trees, and a mountain rising just beyond them. We were very blessed to have arrived right on schedule on Friday - after 5 days of travel across the greater part of the US and Canada. It was mind-boggling to have had the opportunity to make this trip, and in the process discover just how vast these countries are. For 3 out of the 5 days of travel we were driving through the grass equivalent of desert - ultimately, prairie land. Something that we Kiwis really had not experienced before - only to arrive on the 4th day to epic mountain vistas. 

On our first day of travel it worked out that we were able to catch up with Beccy and Jake in Madison, Wisconsin. It was fantastic to be able to catch up with them and spend some time - I only wish that we could have had longer!

This kind of thing was a common sight through North Dakota 

Early morning views of North Dakota before we crossed the border into Canada

The left side of this picture was what most of our last images of North Dakota were. It was a very brown, barren kind of a landscape. Quite unlike anything I've seen before. And it just went on and on for miles. As far as the eye could see. It really did have it's own kind of unique beauty to it. One thing that was cool was that because the land is so flat, the sky was massive! And there were some incredible cloud formations. 

Driving through Minnesota

North Dakota (similar to Minnesota huh)

 Providentially the border crossing into Canada went very smoothly. All up it took about half an hour to process the paperwork, and we now have some very pretty and colourful new visas in our passports. :) That's another thing that is great about Canada - their money is really pretty! Makes a change from the greenback that's for sure. ;) 
Our first day of driving in Canada was through Saskatchewan - which was mostly the same as North Dakota. Flat, treeless fields that go on forever. 

Next day we drove into Alberta which for a long time was a similar landscape, but as we drew closer to Calgary we were beginning to see more hills. We stopped off at lunchtime in Calgary - which was a gorgeous city. Everyone there seemed to be very active, they were all either running, walking, biking, rollerblading, skateboarding, etc. It seemed to be very vibrant and friendly, so we enjoyed our short stop there. 

We stopped off in Calgary for a very short walk into the city

We then traveled on into the mountains! Which was very exciting. I tell you what, it was quite an experience. I don't think that we took as many pictures as we would have liked too because we were too busy just soaking in all the natural beauty around us. There is nothing quite like mountains. 

Main street in Banff, Alberta

 We didn't have a huge amount of time - but had planned our trip so that the day before we did extra driving, so that we would have a little more time on our day through the mountains. Because of this, we were able to go for a short hike around the Bow Valley which was well worthwhile - and a welcome stretch for our legs. 

We went on a short hike in the National Park - looks like a painting doesn't it :)

Me taking photos of Josh taking photos

We were happy to be in nature. 

 We were able to see some of the local wildlife - although didn't get any photos because they were either too far away or disappeared too quickly. We were able to spot two bears as we drove down the highway, some white mountain goats, elk and deer. 

In this clearing we not only got to see amazing views mountains but also an Elk.

Lake Louise - still frozen over from the winter

It was amazing to see how much snow there still was on the hills and mountains - although the weather was quite warm. At one point we went up to visit Lake Louise, and it was all still frozen over and covered in snow. Quite surreal to sit there and take in the view in shorts and light sweaters!

At this point we had driven into British Columbia and got to see more mountains :)

 We were so thankful to have the opportunity to take this trip. We have always wanted to  visit Canada but never thought we would get the opportunity. We are now really looking forward to serving in the church here, getting to know the people and for Josh in particular having the opportunity to learn more practically about the ministry. He has been scheduled in to preach at least once a week, as well as hopefully lead some Bible studies and do some visitation. We hope to be able to keep you updated as the weeks progress. In the meantime thank you so much for your prayers and continued support - we appreciate it so much! 

Just another little update...

I know this is right after I had just posted the previous update - but I had written that the other week and didn't realise that I hadn't actually published it! Whoops! 

So I thought that I would give you a little more of an update on where we are currently at - Josh is all finished with his first year of seminary! We attended the Commencement ceremony for the graduating students on Thursday night, which was so great to be able to share with them, and it was a wonderful opportunity to congratulate them and recognise all the hard, hard work that they put into their studies over the past 3-4 years. 

We helped our friends move in right next door to us over the past week, so we are blessed to have some good friends who will be our next door neighbours for a while! :) 

Josh and I have been busy over the past couple of days getting things finalised for our trip west. Our car needed a bit of work doing to it - but incredibly providentially we were able to get the work done for a fraction of the cost that was originally quoted to us. We were VERY thankful for that. 

It is a strange feeling to be cleaning and packing up our place knowing that we are going to be away for the next 12 weeks - but we are very excited about the opportunity as well and although we will really miss our friends here in the Chicago area - we are looking forward to meeting some new people out west!

So that is the update - we will try and keep you posted over our internship as we will actually be getting out and about and experiencing new things. 

Thank you for your continued support and prayers - it is appreciated so much. oxoxo

Hello Abbotsford - we'll see you soon Lord willing!! :D

Spring Update!

Well, time has flown big time! I thought it was about time that we wrote you an update, especially before we leave for Canada.

We have some exciting things to report on, one of which is that spring has sprung! The weather today is already up to about 28 degrees. Looking outside the grass is beautifully green and lush looking, and over the past week in particular all the trees are getting their new leaves. It's amazing the effect it has on the landscape - and it's almost, almost hard to remember just how cold and hard the winter was. It's amazing the difference that sunshine and warmth can have on your mood and motivation in general. :)

We had a lovely April, and really enjoyed getting into the spirit of Easter - my favourite holiday. :) It was quite a novel experience to celebrate it during the spring! As it turns out Hot Cross Buns are not really done over here - there was only one store that you could buy them from, and they didn't look to appetising, so I rolled up my sleeves and got baking! They actually came out pretty delish!

Things have been finishing up for the school year - which is kind of strange for us - being halfway through the year, but the school year is ending - somewhat back to front from what we are used to. I finished teaching art classes and have just finished up my babysitting - plus the Bible study group that I was babysitting for has finished up too. 

Josh is now in the thick of exams. He sat one this morning, and has another 6 to go over the next 4 days. Needless to say, he has been very busy. He works long hours every day, usually through until 11pm each night - but something that has been really nice is that we have been able to have dinners together. I even took dinner to seminary the other night so that we could enjoy it together! I'm really thankful that he is able to work so hard and consistently - and hopefully the Lord will bless his efforts!

Josh also had to have an interview this past week with the session from Redeemer Church (our church over here) so that they could assess him for his preaching license. By God's awesome grace, they granted it to him - so he is now licensed to preach! (So to speak). 

As most of you would probably know by now, the students at MARS are set up with an internship so they can get some practical experience over the summer. Again, amazingly providentially - we were accepted at Emmanuel URC (United Reformed) church in Abbotsford, British Columbia. This is an incredible opportunity for us - and in particular for Josh - this very generous congregation is willing to give him the opportunity to preach, take a bible study and be involved in some visiting with the members. It really is amazing that they would be willing to take on us first years and give us this opportunity. Plus, we are going to be driving over there - which means crossing over a majority of the width of the US and Canada. A once in a lifetime road trip! We are planning on heading over to BC via Canada, and then Lord willing will return via the US. It's going to take us about 5 days travel to get there (traveling on average 7.5-8 hours a day).

So we look forward to keeping you updated on how things go! We are also looking forward to catching up with Beccy & Jake Gulliksen who are currently in Wisconson - right in our path for our trip, so Lord willing will be catching up with them for lunch on our first day of travel. : ) 

I also had a really cool opportunity this past week to go and visit a local Christian Elementary school. They were having a Book Day, and very kindly invited me to speak about book illustration with the kids. There were two groups that I spoke to - the first being an older group of about 75 kids aged 8-10 and the second group of about 45 aged 6-7. They were a great group and the school was very hospitable. I really enjoyed the opportunity! 

So otherwise, the next couple of weeks are especially busy for us as we pack and prepare for the big trip, as Josh finishes his exams, and I do a thorough spring clean of our apartment! 

Thought I'd include a relatively current picture of us over here to show that we are still alive and well. :) 

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!  

Well we have a lot of snow.

And I mean a lot. As I write it is snowing lightly outside and the house across the street looks like it's frosted. The plough has just driven by trying to clear the roads, and this morning I watched someone turn into our street and drive (or rather slide) down it sideways before getting back on track. 

It's exciting times! I had to dig our car out this morning because it got stuck. The good thing is that everyone drives really carefully, and because it's not too cold at the moment (only -4C) then the roads aren't too icy as far as I can tell. The snow is staying really powdery and soft. There is a lot of the stuff out there though. It is getting to a point for people that they shovel their driveways and they are running out of space to put the snow. 

A couple of 'snow mountains' down our street

I'm not sure what Josh is doing here - maybe we won't try and figure it out.  :)

All along the streets and in the car parks of the stores there are huge mountains of snow - which are frustrating because you can't see around them when pulling out. We have been introduced in our time here to the marvelous invention that is the snow blower. You push it like a lawn mower and it scoops up the snow and throws it off to the side. Very cool. 

Calf-deep snow in some spots - even deeper in others! Very thankful for my furry snow boots!

It was quite a nice, and relatively warm day on Sunday so Josh and I decided to go out for a walk and take some pictures for you all. :) Then last night (Tuesday) it started snowing again, and I think that we got another 6 inches at least. It has only just stopped this afternoon (Wednesday).

Trekking through the snow from the carpark to our apartment

The trees are really pretty. 

 Notice the depth of the snow next to the path in the above photo? It's even deeper now. 

Pathways have had to be chiseled out of the snow along the side of the road.

I love how the snow sits on the trees. Looks like a Christmas card. 

The other day was clear and beautiful. We had sunshine which was really nice - and on my way to nanny at 7:30am the light was just amazing as the sun hit the snow. I didn't get any pictures in the morning, but we also had an amazing sunset - so took a couple of pictures then (when I wasn't driving - trying to be responsible) ;)

Beautiful colors and clouds

"O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens! 

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?"

~  Psalm 8: 1, 3-4  ~

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!