31.12.08

Hey!

So we've made it Guam! It's awesome here so far. Let me give you a little run down:

Be praying for us. We're really trying to seek direction on what we should be doing while we're here. I've mentioned that the YWAM base here just started operating last spring, but I didn't really realize how much of a struggle they are in. There's no electricity in our building because they can't afford it. There's no internet on the base... which in this day and age is almost a necessity if you're going to be in touch with possible students and staff. The staff on base are only eating two meals a day, and they are working full time jobs to keep the place alive. The property is owned by a local church, and I don't know what rent is like, but somehow it seems like everyone is working their butts off to barely survive. So that's a big prayer point.

Also on the financial front... I sent an email out a few days ago and mentioned that all of my financial needs have been met. Which is true... my debt to YWAM is paid off. However... something happened in the accounting realm and as a team we have come up $3000 american dollars short. We have some fundraising plans, and we are confident that God will provide what we need, but I want you to know that if you want to give, it is needed. We are keeping a very tight budget right now. I only have limited email access about once a week now, But if you want to give, you can send it to my parents or Garrett Rupp, they know how to get it directly to me. You can also email me at chargrove217@yahoo.com to find out how, or find me on paypal at the same email address.

Anyways, hope everyone is doing good. I'm doing great.

Happy New Year!

27.12.08

Hey-oh.

So we're leaving for outreach tomorrow... flight's at 12:15pm our time. We have an hour layover in Seoul then to Guam. All my stuff is packed up, ready to rock 'n roll. Everybody here is a little freaked out at how fast the last three months have gone by.. . even heard a few comments about being nervous. Honestly I'm just stoked... ready to get outa here and hit the pavement.

After 3 months out here we all are really starting to look like bona fide YWAMers. If you don't know what that means you'll figure it out someday. If you do.... well.... you know what I'm talking about. Maybe it's not even something physical but something more to do with demeanor. It's cool.

I don't really know what the interweb access situation will be like in Guam. From what I here the base there is barely surviving so internet may not be on base. We'll see though.

I can't freaking wait.

24.12.08

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64445&l=b602a&id=589982541

Here's a link to my facebook photo album. I just uploaded a bunch of photos. Merry Christmas and enjoy!

19.12.08

Howdy.

I'll see if I can catch up with the last month. Probably not but I'll give you some tidbits.

Yesterday was the last day of lectures, this next week is outreach prep then next weekend we fly out to Guam. whooooo..... HOOOO!

The speaker this last week talked all about teamwork and cross-cultural communication. He presented us with a couple of models for cultural entry that will be helpful. He was pretty cool, a lot of what he taught was based on teamwork and role-playing activities that helped life be fun. We in turn blew his mind by being the coolest DTS group he's ever worked with ;).

The week before Mark Parker talked about the Cross and Lordship of Christ. What a week. The guy can talk and talk and talk. But he's extremely entertaining. And he definitely rocked our world. Also that weekend we had five kids from a youth group in Tauranga stay here for the weekend and we entertained them the whole time. It was fun. I think they liked it to.

Team Guam has been running at 6am twice a week and getting up at 6:30 weekdays to pray.

We have some really cool ideas for outreach. We'll be working a lot on building relationships between YWAM Guam, The churches there, and the people. We're hoping to run lots of events that help people get connected to each other.... block parties and whatnot. That and we're hoping to find a few cafes or coffeeshops we can hang at regularly and use to connect with locals. It's going to be freaking rad.

Haven't been snowboarding or rock climbing in a long time. It's almost Christmas and I miss the snow. It's weird that Christmas is in the summer here. But also awesome. Just the fact that we go to the swimming hole to cool off in December is great. I do miss the NW though. Heard it's been cold and snowy over there. Lucky.

Had a chat with a girl in a skate shop the other day.... she picked up on my accent and started peppering me with questions about America. She asked me if it's like the movies and everyone shoots each other all the time. I told her not where I'm from.

I drove here for the first time a couple of weeks ago. All the way to Whangarei and back. The staff all took off on a retreat and left all the students to fend for themselves so I got approved to drive one of the vans so we could go to town. It was a little weird feeling, and scary in town. They have those big roundabouts here. But we made it without getting lost or in a wreck.

Made 26 dollars in 40 minutes singing songs on the street a few weeks ago.

I cut my hair the other day. Off. It's real short now. I know there's a few of you who will appreciate that news.

Well. Guess I'll sign off....

12.11.08

Hey. So here I am again. Kind of sitting here thinking... "I really should blog about something... but I don't know what...." Not because there's nothing to talk about but because I'm not sure what I want to tell you about. This last week has been pretty intense.

Last week we took a road trip to Tauranga, about five hours south-ish of here. The national leaders of YWAM NZ were having a three day gathering thing, and our leaders were supposed to go, so they dragged us a long. Apparently I'm actually a YWAM-er now that I'm in a DTS... according to certain leaders and whatnot... that's cool. Anyways, so while the leaders were having meetings and other leaderly things we got to go whitewater rafting. I've now officially gone down the biggest waterfall in the world that it is legal for an amateur to go down. 7 meters. It was cool, but I hit my face on Skywalker's helmet. Really hard. And it hurt a lot. Went down the Kaituna river, our route was a grade 5. And it was gorgeous. And fun. Our guide was about as cool as it gets. This coming weekend we're going canyoning, and I'm super stoked. I'll tell you about it after.

Rafting was only a small part of the week. Wednesday night we got to be a part of a worship service with YWAM NZ. It was the most passionate worship I've ever been a part of. That's saying a lot. The worship team was one dude with an acoustic guitar and a mic and another dude with a djembe. So rad. I was really impressed with the national leadership, they all seem very willing to recognize their own need for Jesus in a very real way, and talking to them doesn't make you feel like an insignificant discipleship student but like a part of what God is doing with and through YWAM in New Zealand. It really got me pretty excited about being a part of it. There's a lot more to tell about that night... but maybe we'll talk about that another time.

This week the topic has been identity. Talking about learning how to just be who God made us to be.... kind of big stuff.... not sure how much of it I want to plaster all over the internet right now...

I came here with the intention to grow closer to God. I came here with the intention to learn more about who I am and who He wants me to be. I came here to break out of my freaking box and reinvent the wheel when it comes to my relationship with Christ. I know I talk a lot about all the cool fun stuff we do, but I did NOT come here to go on vacation. Let me tell you, I'm not on a vacation. However I'm having the time of my life. I actually thought this thing might really suck in some ways but I'm loving it here. It's hard sometimes, but I planned on being challenged. That being said, I had no idea how God would work in me. What I'm saying is that even though I knew this was going to be a time of growth, I didn't really know deep down how deep that would go. There's a lot at this point that I'm still trying to figure out how to articulate, even to myself. Basically what I'm saying is that God is working in my life in ways I never predicted. When people send me notes about being excited to see what God does with me, I'll be honest.... the thought "you have no freaking idea..." runs through my head. I believe you will see a difference in me when I come home.... in the the things I do but more importantly in the state of my spirit. So to those of you who have been praying for me: THANKS. I've no doubt that it's helped. I feel like a different person than I did 6 weeks ago. And we're only halfway through the lecture phase, and the outreach phase is gonna be off the hook. The fact is that I'm not comfortable at this point spilling my heart and soul about these things on a blog. So that's why my blog entries come out seeming a little superficial. So I hope you haven't gotten the impression that I'm just frolicking through the daisies down here. God is working in my heart and my soul in a huge way. And.... I want more. So again thank you. I know I'm not necessarily awesome at replying to little notes and things. Access to the internet here is a little bit limited and my head is so occupied with what's going on that I have a hard time keeping up on those things. So for that I'm sorry and thanks for your patience.

So on the topic of outreach. They're splitting our DTS up into two outreach teams. One is headed to Vanuatu, which is the location they've been talking about since I first pursued this idea. The other is going to Guam. Yours truly is headed for Guam. And He's stoked. We'll be heading there right after Christmas and will be there until the end of February. We'll be staying on a brand-spanking new YWAM base. By that I don't mean new buildings.... I think you know what I mean. It should be cool. We don't really know yet what all of our outreach time will be spent doing, but I'm sure it will be great.

Quick note: I'm supposed to have some funds coming in, but as of right now I still need to give the organization about $1800 NZ. About $1300 of that is for a plane ticket, which we need to get..... YESTERDAY. So.... that's out there. I know a lot of you have already supported me financially so far, and that there's no way I'd be here without that, and thank you so much. But I do need to make the need known so you have the opportunity if you so desire. You can find me on paypal, my email address is chargrove217@yahoo.com. Or drop me a line and I can tell you where to mail it.

So anyways, I think that's all I have to say for now. Cheers.

2.11.08

I'm still alive!

I don't have much time, only a few minutes till internet curfew, but I've been getting lots of "are you still alive?" type messages and emails lately so I'll try to drop you a little tidbit.

Just finished up the week on relationships. Not just boy/girl stuff (though we did discuss it) but just relationships in general. Took some personality tests and whatnot. Discovered that I'm a.... (surprise surprise...) phlegmatic. The real surprise was that I was a very close second as a choleric... weird indeed. I don't know how much stock I put in that stuff but it's intended more as a tool to help you learn about yourself than anything. Our speaker was a freaking firecracker, by far the most entertaining we've had yet. It was a fun week. Yesterday we had a party for the leader of the base, who's stepping down at the end of the year. It seemed kind of like a who's-who of YWAM NZ. It was quite a partay.

Last weekend we hosted a dance party in Maungutoroto. Matt, one of the leaders here is really into t-t-techno. He D-jayed. It was something else. I can handle some techno for about 3 hours and then I about blew up. But it was pretty fun.

Today right after dinner I went for a little exploratory stroll. Walked down the road for a ways, then took off into the fields. I thought I got lost for a little bit. I was imagining myself having to spend the night in the NZ bush fending off possums. But I made it back ok.

Speaking of possums.... the ones here are brown and have bushy tails. They're an import from Australia and are considered a pest, and the government encourages killing them. The other night my roommates and I got to go to dinner at the Blythen's (the folks who we helped with docking there sheep, if you recall) and afterwards Grant took us out possum hunting. After 4x4-ing through his farmland in a '78 land cruiser for a while, we hopped on the heel-toe express with a marlin 22 rifle and started picking off possums. I know the technical word is Opossum, but everyone here says possum. I took down three, no misses. Really fun... but it brings me to a story:

So it's gonna be hard for me to tell good stories on this blog because a good story is about good characters and it's so much easier to tell a story about characters you're readers already know. The fact is none of you know the characters in my current story at all, so this is going to be a little bit more of an undertaking. So let me paint you a picture: Manuel. Manuel is from Germany. He's also one of my current roommates. A bit smaller than me, brown hair, dark eyes. Plays the violin real well and the piano pretty good also. I really like him but he suffers from.... clulessness. I mean when it comes to things like chopping wood, climbing things, jumping off things, and..... shooting things. I mean this boy has never held a gun before. To add to this picture, you should know that these "possums" we speak off are notoriously hardy creatures. So we're tromping through the fields and the mud and the forest and the herds of sheep. Grant is spotlighting the possums in the trees and the idiots just sit there staring at you. The man turns hunting possums into something like a video game.

So we track down a good possum for Manuel to shoot. It's in the top of a medium-size tree, spotlighted by our intrepid guide, Grant. Manuel is about 3 meters from the tree in question. All in all, we're talking about a pretty close-range shot. Good for Manuel right now.

He lines the possum up in the scope, as the tension mounts. Grant gently talks him through the shot, explaining how the scope works, to relax, and all that good stuff. The rest of us are silent, content to let Manuel have his moment. His finger squeezes the trigger, and the shot rings out.







Direct hit. To the possums's torso. However this little guy isn't going down without a fight. He almost gets knocked of his branch by the impact but manages to hang on. At Grant's instruction Manuel lines up another shot. Crack. At this impact the possum falls but manages to catch another branch a bit lower down, and remains in the tree.


Then it happens. The screeches ring out. I don't even know how to describe to you the sound that a possum makes. Hoarse, screeching, rasping...... in short, absolutely hideous and unnerving. The screeching makes all of us hope for Manuel to kill this possum off quickly. He lines up another shot. The possum again falls a few feet, catches again, and continues it's hideous objections to the abuse it's recieving.

Three...... four...... five........ six shots in all is what it takes to knock the possum to the ground. As it writhes and screeches on the ground, something unexpected happens...



Grant picks the possum up by the tail, and as another screech rings out, he swings and the possum's head arcs with a crunch into the trunk of the tree. He drops it, fully expecting it to be dead.... but the writhing and screeches continue...... then the knife comes out from the holster at Grants back. The point drives through the possum's throat then comes out with the slash.


Don't ask me how a possum can still screech and twitch after that, but it finally did die after a point blank shot to the back of the skull. Manuel was a bit truamatized by the whole affair. I thought it was pretty entertaining.

Anyways. So I gotta go. I know the story was a bit gory but I hope you enjoyed it. There's more to tell but I don't have time right now, I'll try to get back on here sooner rather than later.

11.10.08



Okie dokie folks.... so I finally found the patience to upload some photos on the rediculously slow interweb here. I wish I could show you everything but I'm just going to have to be very selective. And they are in no particular order. So.... this is the view in the morning from my bedroom door. I uploaded them pretty small too so they're not that awesome. You'll just have to let these serve as an appetizer and then I'll show you the true glory when I get home.





The lake we camped by.





Haha ok... so have you ever heard of docking lambs? Yeah me neither. Apparently you have to cut lambs tails... and... "other things" off during their first year. If you don't flies lay maggots and whatnot. Anyways so we went to help a local farmer named Grant dock his lambs. This guy is like freaking crocodile dundee. I kid you not. Anyways I enjoyed myself despite being covered in sheep blood and poop. It sort of brought a whole new perspective to the whole biblical lambs-with-the-shepherd thing.



Another shot of the lake





This crazy swamp thing by the lake. The picture doesn't do it justice.




So your eyes do not decieve you. That is indeed a nearly-decomposed cow. I know I know, you'd probably rather see pictures of other rad things, like more of the lake, or where I live, or my roommates, or the people I spend nearly every waking moment with now, or whatever. But I decided the dead cow had to make the cut. We went for a hike around the lake and this puppy was in a field right by the trail. Memories.



In other news, we went caving yesterday. I didn't take my camera because the caving experience included near-complete-underwater submersion. We followed an underground creek through a cave and it was incredible. There were GLOW WORMS!! Unbelievable! And underground waterfalls that we had to descend... like 20 feet of it. And cave wetters which look like a cross between a giant cricket and a spider. And all sorts of goodness. We were underground for 3 hours. Big caverns with stalactites and mites, as well as very tight places for good amounts of time. Swimming through underground pools of water. The whole shebang. All I can say is WOW.

School is going good. We sit in lectures for at least 2 hours every day which has been a big challenge for me, but I think I'll get used to the idea. I'm really going to learn a lot about myself and my relationship with God. We do have a little bit of homework but the guidelines leave a lot of room for creativity and the purpose is to help seal the stuff we're learning, so it won't be bad. Transitioning to student status is weird... in more terms than just classes. It's been a long time since I was just a "student." It's good though. We're at the end of week two, week three starts tomorrow morning.

We took a trip into Whangarei on Friday afternoon... it's about an hour away and is the biggest city north of Auckland. It seems like a cool town. We just wandered around a bit, had a cup of coffee and whatnot. We don't have real coffee out here, just instant coffee. Which sucks. I'm finally figured out how to make tea bearable... milk and sugar. So I'm starting to pick that habit up.

It's been fun finding out how people from other parts of the states and the world view people from Oregon. There are a few other people here from the states, the only other one from the west coast is Mary, one of the DTS leaders. People seem to think Oregonians are pretty extreme outdoorsy and fearless... and coffee snobs. Haha. Every once in a while somebody calls me "oregon." Which is actually a pretty awesome nickname.

Ok well... I'd love to launch into a funny story about something but I've already been sitting for an hour and a half. And I don't really have any. At least... and this will shock all of you I'm sure... I haven't had a single "endearingly awkward as ass" moment since I've been in NZ. Weird. Anyways, I'm out. Goodnight.

3.10.08

So..... it's Saturday in NZ. Almost lunchtime. Guess what we're doing this afternoon! We're going to a farm down the street to dock lambs. Meaning: cut their tails off. Don't worry it's good for them, if we don't do it they get a nasty parasitic fly sitcheeation that's no good for anyone involved. I think it will be fun.

The last few days have been pretty good. We're starting to get to know each other a little better, things are becoming less awkward. And let me tell you.... you haven't lived until you've had a Korean say "you're awesome." Talk about warm fuzzy feelings. Haha. Anyways.... we went camping for the last few days on a lake close to the west coast. It was awesome. I know there's a lot of hype about how beautiful NZ is but.... it's all true as far as I can tell. I found out yesterday that several of the other people here planned some extra time after school is out to just hang out. I planned an extra month. So that will be cool to have some people to hang with.

So far I haven't come up with any funny/embarrassing stories. Odd, for me. But that's cool I'm sure they'll come.

Anyways. Later.

27.9.08

I'm sitting in the student lounge at YWAM Oak Ridge. The travel here was.... crazy. I've discovered that I don't particularly mind flying in itself... but hanging out in a metal tube thousands of feet in the air for 12 hours isn't particularly my cup of tea. Speaking of tea they drink it quite a bit here. I might find myself picking up on the habit. Anyways, the flight over the Pacific really wasn't that bad. Trevor, an accountant from Wellington, shared my row on the plane and is a very nice guy. Bought me a cup of coffee and a peice of carrot cake in the Auckland airport after we got in. Also met Ki and Herbert, who turned out to be exactly the kinds of fellows I can hang around and enjoy myself. We had a party on the plane. I also managed to sleep for several hours. Then I had to wait 8 hours in the Auckland airport for the YWAM pick-up. Let's just say I got to know the airport pretty well. The first leg of the trip was pretty fun... hung out with a friend for the day, so it was good.

The first couple of days here have been pretty chill. I was prepared for it to be all hardcore right off the bat, but they've been easy on us. There are 11 other students in the DTS. I'm sharing a bedroom with Jaeho from Korea and Manuel from Germany. I like them both a lot.... so far. It has only been two days. The base is nowhere near anything "civilized" which is awesome. The country here is beautiful. Rolling grass hills with bands of trees. The green is the most vivid green you've ever seen when the sun is shining. Unbelievable. We went to a local community church this morning, very friendly loving people. And genuinely so.

I think it's going to be a challenge for me to play the student again. It's been a while since I had to go to classes and do homework and projects and things. I'll be fine I'm sure but it's definately going to take some getting used to for a guy who's in the habit of getting up early and swinging a hammer right away. I'm definately one of the older students here. So the other challenge is for me to jump into a dorm-like setting after having lived on my own. So far nobody's really driven me nuts and I'm hoping it stays that way. We'll see how I do.

The sunrise this morning was gorgeous. I've been taking a few pics but I haven't tried plugging my camera into the computer yet. The internet here is pretty slow, so we'll see if I'll be able to post pictures or not. I'll try pretty soon here.

So far everything's going good. Can't believe I'm actually here.

24.9.08

It's 10:45 in the morning on wednesday. I'm sitting at my folks place, spending time with the fam before I head for NZ. I'm flying out of PDX tomorrow at 11:05. Crazy. I'm setting up a blogspot. Bookmark it.

Central Oregon is pretty awesome. I think I forget that most of the time. The sun shines here like a good friend, the land is wide open, and you will probably have to have a fire in your house the night after you were outside in shorts. It's pretty great, actually. This town (Redmond, OR) has changed a lot since I moved away three years ago. I hardly even know how to get anywhere anymore. I'm a little offended that people would commit a hostile coup of my childhood reality... but I'll get over it.

Bought a camera to take on my trip yesterday.... a little ultra-compact canon powershot. First camera purchase. I'm scared I'm going to ruin it. I'll try to keep some current pictures up from NZ.

Well the creative literary juices don't seem to be flowing too well right now. I think I'm a bit distracted. So.... laters.