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.