I”VE BEEN THINKING

“Signposts from God!”

5th February 2012

Deuteronomy 8:6-7. Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land— a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; (NIV)

Where are we going in this New Year? The road stretches out before us and we all must determine our own destination. No one else can choose it for us. So many voices in our heads are trying to persuade us to choose a different direction. It would be best if we could spend time being still and listen to the voice of God.

Because of the mercy and love of our Saviour, God will not only forgive but forget our sins of the past if we are remorseful.

This is now a new year. Where are we going? If we decide to walk with God, we will have an eternal destiny.

God doesn’t reveal to us all of the way at once. It is not necessary for us to know the whole way—as long as He knows it. Driving around the beautiful coastline from Maraetai to Duder’s Beach in east Auckland, you come to a place where it appears the road continues around a corner and into the open sea. We confidently drive on because we trust that the road contractors would not build a road that dropped you over a cliff. We have faith that even though we cannot see it at first, we know we will come to the point on the road where we will see it turn away with the shoreline.

The roadway of life also has many curves. Every succeeding day holds many things “around the corner.” This can lead to a life of exhilarating adventure, if we set our minds to face life that way. Those who are Christians have confidence that God would not build for His people a dead end road, but a highway of faith, hope and love, which is a thoroughfare that leads somewhere.

There is a beautiful legend that tells about a young Indian who was at work many miles from his native village where his wife and family lived. He had the reputation of being a very good singer. One day when someone asked him to sing, he said, “I will sing my song for you to hear, but I really sing it to my children and my wife.”

“But how can you sing to them when you are here and they are so far away?”

“Our songs travel over the pathway of love,” he replied.

The source of our hope is God’s love, the love of a divine Father for His children. We can trust Him to lead us all the way.

To Ponder

What are some of the signposts on God’s highway?

WRITTEN BY JOHN GUMMER FOR THE UPLIFTING OF THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO RECEIVE IT.

I”VE BEEN THINKING

“Glory to God”

25th December 2011

Luke 2:13-14. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests. (NIV)

Everyone celebrates Jesus birthday only some don’t acknowledge it. For those that do it represents a day of peace. It is a time to toss aside all our worries and to hear the angel’s message, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.” What we celebrate is the humble magnificence of the King cradled in a manger.

One day a mother was standing with her family of young ones in a department store. They were dressed in simple but very neat and tidy clothes and they obviously did not have enough money to buy presents. Unfortunately they were not as well-off as many of us who have our trees loaded with gifts. They were enjoying going to the department store to see the beautiful gifts that others were going to get.

As they walked from room to room they came upon a beautifully decorated tree. One of the older boys sensed when he looked into his mother’s eyes that she felt bad because she couldn’t give to her children all that she would like to. The boy looked at the beautiful tree then looked at his mother and said. “Mother, you are much prettier than that Christmas tree!” Needless to say, she would receive no sweeter Christmas gift.

At this time when we sneak a view through the window of Christmas, let us exclaim, “God, of all the things we have received, there is nothing that compares with the priceless gift of your Son, our Saviour. We give you thanks!”

I’ve been thinking we should undertake to give thanks not only with words but also with actions. As God has given to us let us decide to also give to the folk around us.

One Christmas day a man at a railway station befriended a young teenager who he had found did not have enough money to go home to see his family. The teenager asked his benefactor’s name. “You may be known by others by that name,” commented the teenager, “but I will always think of you as an angel standing in a faded raincoat in a railway station.”

We should never lose sight of the very heart and meaning of Christmas. The tinsel, lights and commercialism of the season try to cover the message that God wants us to know, and see, that He gave His Son to the world to save it. As God gave love to the world, let us, too, practice it.

To Ponder

How is your life different because of the coming into this world of Jesus Christ?

WRITTEN BY JOHN GUMMER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE CHURCH NEWSCAST

I”VE BEEN THINKING

“It Is Time to Live”

18th December 2011

2 Corinthians 4:18. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV)

A well-known psychologist has reported that over half of the mental disorders in many countries are caused by calendars, day timers and cell phone alarms. The constant rush to meet deadlines makes more people mentally ill than the fear of nuclear bombs, cancer or time in jail, so this authority declared.

We should always remember that we only have one chance at this life we have been given. Therefore, we should make the most of every passing moment. This fascinating universe has so some much to offer and interest us that it is tragic to lose sight of its glories simply by rushing about neglectfully.

It takes great strength to get on top of the force of time. It takes individuality and intelligence, but above all a sense of values. We must know those things that have real worth.

An anxious parent was talking to a friend about their children’s apparent lack of appreciation for the things they gave them. “Maybe,” the friend suggested, “you have given them too much to live with and not enough to live for.”

I was reading an interesting article by a botanist which stated that the branches on trees often replicate the root system below. Our lives, our influence and our happiness are also in proportion to the depth that our lives are rooted in God.

The Christian believer has a definite relationship with their Lord. Jesus is their constant inspiration. He leads His family away from the things in this world that are wicked and sinful and challenges them to do the things that are godly and good. The Master points us in a different direction from things that are temporary and faces our attention on those things that are above. Life is by far too short to invest in things that crumble and turn ultimately to dust.

Without question, our Godless ways have a way of catching up with us. Someone once said, “There is something about being mean I have noticed that sort of punishes itself, in the fullness of time. It is the very nature of things.” It is the same truth that the Lord had in mind when Paul wrote: Remember this: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” (2 Corinthians 9:6.)

I’ve been thinking let’s invest our time in seeing as much good as possible and doing as much good as possible, by the grace of God.

To Ponder

Is there any sense of time in things of the spirit?

WRITTEN BY JOHN GUMMER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE CHURCH NEWSCAST

So I am sitting in the Singapore Airport and reflecting on the last 3 weeks of life. They were pretty interesting. Saturday was awesome, the Saturday outing was going to the Salzburg Christmas Market. So we all gallivanted onto the big Planai bus and headed to Salzburg, an hour long ride later we were there and it was beautiful! Christmas trees everywhere and lights all around, and it was cold; just how Christmas time is supposed to be. You enter the market and it is rows upon rows of stalls filled with things that my mother would completely adore; little nic-nacs and do-dads, and some stalls sprayed this smell in the room that smelt like Christmas. If anyone wants to know what Christmas smells like it is Vanilla, Orange and Cinnamon; we asked. So we were at this one stall and you hear this super, incredibly loud North American say “Oh my gosh! Look at that! How cute is that!”. Soooo North American and annoying that Shelly, Emma, Larissa and I decided that we didn’t want to be North American anymore and so we adapted our accents into British ones. That went on for about an hour. How fabulous. The only things I bought were an ear stretcher (it is this awesome, small wooden swirl one) and a mug that says ‘Salzburg Christmas Market’ on it. So the market was great and all but so crowded and we were all used to good ol’ little Schladdy in a down season that we couldn’t handle the crowds and went to a coffee shop for two hours. The Mozart Cafe actually. Fancy. I have no idea how I am going to go home to a big city when small towns are so incredible. Afterwards we looked through once more, bought some amazing food stuff and headed to the bus. There was live music and it was just so magical! Imagine you had a magical powder that you poofed into the air and the best Christmas came out, this was it. After the great bus ride home with my wonderful roomie, Larry to accompany me we arrived at Schladdy right in the middle of Krampus Night.
What is a Krampus you might ask? I’d actually like to know the answer as well. On Friday Martin comes into the room and warns us, “So tomorrow there is a annual tradition festival thing, people get dressed up as demon like creatures and go around hitting you with sticks. It is tradition that goes way back in Austrian history (I zoned out a bit here.. so I am not super sure what the tradition was all about..) But it was some kind of demonic thing.” He continued to tell us how when he was young he would put on like 5 pairs of pants and go out and hit the Krampus’s with sticks to provoke them and then run like crazy as they chased them. The whole time he had a huge grin on his face, he encouraged us to go and check it out because it is a thing only Austria has! You may now be asking, “But MacKenzie, aren’t you at a Bible School? Why do they want you to go to a Demon Festival?” Why? Well because according to Martin not a soul who is dressed up knows the actual history behind it. They just do it as like a competition and a great excuse to get hammered (not that Austrians need an excuse..) So we all wanted to go check out the Krampus’s.
We get off the bus, run to eat dinner then head out to brave the Krampus’s. I have to say I was pretty scared. You here this huge sound of metal on metal cause they are all wearing things that look like a cow bell on steroids on their butts. So the main street of Schladming is blocked off and you have to pay to go in, but we just stood on the end of the street and they would open the fence to let the groups of Krampus’s out, it was actually better here cause they really interacted with you. So the first half hour of you time you just want to pee your pants. These things are soooo creepy. And they are all at some sort of level of drunk. So they have this swagger that is like a ‘I’M GOING TO KILL SOMETHING’ Swagger. But then they take their masks off and you are like woah, you are just a normal person underneath. We had a few cheeky monkeys with us *coughWill,Kenton,Danielcough* who ran up and hit them so that they would get hit back. William got chased a good couple of times, once they actually picked him up and brought him into a crowd of other Krampus and they were all attacking him. It was hilarious! And poor Danish, for some reason they always targeted him. Liz, wins the Miss. Gutsy award. After you get kinda immune to their appearance they aren’t so scary unless they come right up to you and like growl. Not okay. So anyway, Liz just walks into these groups of Krampus and hits one on the arm “Hey! Hey! Can I have a picture!?” So thanks to her being amazing, we all have photos with the Krampus. One guy smudged black stuff on our faces. But there were some pretty awesome looking ones! One group was on stilts so they were super tall and another group had a car thing with loud music and one Krampus dangling from a crane type thing that was attached to the car. So cool, a really fun experience, I am with Martin! And for all the mother’s out there it was safe (well about as safe as you could make it..) there were police and each Krampus had a number on their butt so if they did anything too bad they’d know who it was. The bad night is apparently Dec. 5th where it is the unofficial one and there are just a bunch of drunk guys going crazy. Needless to say, I stayed at Tauernhof that night.. But it was family group night and some groups go into town and poor Kaitlynn got pinned down and attacked and has these wicked marks on her legs now. I got a bundle of sticks and enjoyed hitting some people with it  But of course I asked them first and they were silly enough to say yes.
So after a glorious night of encountering the Krampus’s a small group of people went skiing on Sunday! Well actually there were only 3 skiers and about… 10 snowboarders. So I haven’t skied in at least 6 years. I was a kid on training wheels. As for the other two skiers, Helen was good but hadn’t done it in a good long while as well and Thomas is staying at T-hof to be a ski instructor (enough said). So I thoroughly entertained the whole mountain as I fell down the whole mountain. It is a little bit shaming when there are 5 year olds flying down the mountain, and ski teams there training and you are just learning. It was not a beginners slope either, because it hadn’t snowed yet it was all manmade snow and super icy. And steep. So icy + steep + clumsy = an extremely bruised MacKenzie. Thankfully Thomas attempted to help me learn how to be a professional skier, but it all takes time people. We made a video of my wonderful skiing, so maybe I’ll put it on FB. But apparently I did really good considering the conditions were crap. But hey, it’s the Alps! I shant complain. My two best wipe outs? Or should I say most painful cause there were a lot more that I am sure looked awesome; for instance I went off the course into the trees.. Okay most painful; I was skiing right? And then suddenly out of nowhere there was a mound of snow (piled up around a plastic pole) and I went right over the mound and I swear it felt like a did some sort of flip. I wacked my head on the ground pretty wonderfully but I had a helmet on so yay! So that hurt. The next one? So you know how it was just man-made snow on the actual run? Then the snow would just stop and there would be rocks. So I decided that snow was boring and rocks would be funner. Needless to say I went off the run and onto the rocks and fell producing some incredibly nice bruises on my buttocks. I lost my ski’s a good couple times. After one wipe out right next to a group of stupidly amazing tweens I could hear Thomas saying “She’s Canadian!” As if that is a good excuse. Ha. So the hill consisted of two parts, a rather nice slope that was good for learning then a CRAZY steep one. We went down probably about 6 times, each time I fell probably at least 3 times. On the steep one I would usually get about half way down fall and slide/roll the rest of the way down. Afterwards we went to McDonalds. YUM! So that was my first experience skiing on the Alps! I had fun though. Falling is great.
So the last couple of weeks before I had been praying about and really wanting to stay at T-hof for the winter season. It is just such an incredible place and I just never want to leave. Plus I hadn’t been in the snow for sooo long so that was a bonus as well. In my mind the Scholarship that I have with AU allowed me to start using it in Semester 2 (July) So it was actually possible for me to stay, cause that is one of the main reason I had to come back. So I had even asked Maja if there was space in the kitchen but she said no, but if anyone cancelled she’d let me know. So the Tuesday after this glorious weekend after lunch Lothar comes up to me and says, “Hans-Peter wants to see you.” First of all I thought ‘Crap, Alex and I stayed up til 3am reading the silly Me book and he is going to tell me off.’ Second thought ‘Holy crap. He is going to ask me to stay for winter.’ I walk in, “MacKenzie, look so we need one more person in the kitchen for winter.” HOLY CRAP. I start freaking out a bit like really!? Really!? Um Um Um Um. “Do I have to tell you right now?!” “Yes.” “Um um um um Can I tell you tomorrow?” “Yes.” So as I proceed to freak-out he sits there in all his glory and is emotionless. That is why we all love HP. His poker-face. So as I walked out in a daze my mind is going crazy! How incredible, I prayed specifically for this and bang it happened. Liz was like DO IT! Answer to prayer there is not even a question about it. But there were things I had to sort out, like could I really not use my scholarship until July? And also I’d miss the big family Christmas with G+G H. And U.B. and A.N. But on the other hand I could stay there for winter and ski all the time and just continue to love it there. There were so many factors that all rolled into it. I sought advice from a couple of people I really respected, prayed like a madman, sent 500 emails. It was crazy. The next 2 days was spent doing this. It turned out I would have to use my scholarship in March. So I told Martin and HP that I could stay until Feb. And they said they wanted someone for the whole season (until April) but if they couldn’t find anyone they’d let me know. But the more I thought about it, for only an extra 2 months there I’d miss out on a lot and I’d come back and rush into uni. In the end, obviously they found someone else and I am now heading home. I found out on the following Sunday that there was a girl taking it so that was the end of that dream.
What is the lesson I learned? Well some people would argue, ‘You prayed specifically for that, God answered the prayer so obviously he wants you to stay.’ But the more I thought and prayed about my decision the more I started to think, okay God is just showing me that there are options. I can count on him to answer prayer. I need to put the decision in his hands, but at the same time actively make a choice and trust that if that choice is just allll wrong, he will kick me off that path, he holds all the power in the universe so why would I doubt that? Even when the choice is not always the one you might most like to do.. and bam, I had my devotion idea ready for Friday. (every morning after breakfast someone gives a devotion and mine was on the last morning of the last full day.. :O)
We had an amazing lecturer that week named Steve Volle, by far my favourite. He is the principal of Bodenseehof (Torchbearers). It was awesome cause on Wednesday he did a lecture on decision making. But he was so fun. This is how he got to know who I was, so after Alex and I had stayed up til 3am reading we came to breakfast a little bit out of it and going mental from over tiredness. He was sitting at our table. What a great way to meet a lecturer. We bonded over burnt toast and poof! A friendship was born. The rest of the week I would always say HI STEVE!! A little too enthusiastically maybe… and by Friday when I said GOOD MORNING STEVE!! He said, Good morning MacKenzie. To which I replied, oh you learned my name!! Good job. I was pretty proud. Anyways, I thought Steve was so awesome that Bodenseehof is now on my list of Torchbearers to go to. Good work Steve!
And this brings me to my last week at Tauernhof. Oh I forgot to mention the Talent show! It was on Friday. Soooo good, holy moly our school was so full of incredibly talented people. Musicians, dancers, funny people we had them all! Alex and I had the privilege of hosting it. Heh heh. We were so tired and not feeling it that our humour was just crazy super dry. It was wonderful. The next day was spent getting my dear father his Christmas gift, driving up to Ramsau, going to Artisan (twice..) and general hanging out and me still thinking about whether or not to stay here. But in the night time.. oh the excitement… So the Planai ski-mountain right next to Tauernhof officially opened that weekend so they have this huge outdoor concert. You have to pay to get in but you can just stand outside the fence and look over and you are pretty much at the concert for free! So all us poor Bible School students did the second option.. Pretty sure half of T-hof was there! Dancing like fools to the starting person who was some chick from England trying to be Lady Gaga. Her songs at least you could dance to. But it had horrible words, like ‘I’m going to kill my boyfriend!’ So we would shout at the top of our lungs, ‘I’M GOING TO LOVE MY BOYFRIEND. LOVE!! NOT KILL!! ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!’ And in-between songs we sang Hark the Herold Angels Sing. After which I got offered alcohol.. I don’t blame them. We were all so hyper I would have thought we were drunk too. Not too many creepers which was nice. Just one guy who like made a b-line for me and just stood there staring at me. I got awkward and in those situations I tent to giggle.. but thankfully one of the guys stood in-between. Gotta love men. So 30 Seconds to Mars, the main act comes on and it was so sad, everyone started leaving! They were good..but not super good. A little boring really. But we stayed anyway cause we LOVE dancing.  Plus as a bonus, once the crowds cleared and you could see the ground again we found 5 bucks in change! Woo! Go us. Sunday morning I skyped my parents and then 20 minutes after I went to breakfast and asked the girl who was considering it if she was going to say yes and she said yes so there was my answer! New Zealand here I come.
Monday! Great, normal day, new lecturer – Richard Dahlstrom; who’s daughter I was room-mates with for 6 weeks during the summer! She was an Upward Bound instructor, if you look back at my blogs you’ll find her name, Kristi. So that was exciting, I told him that and also the fact that I have been wearing her yellow crocs for the last 2 months and he too got excited. Monday evening was our last family group session, sad! My family had a chip & dip night. It was perhaps a bit too delicious and I ate a lot of dip. My poor room-mates paid the price.. But afterward Liz, Alex and I had another reading party in my bathroom! What is this reading party you may ask? It is when we take a bunch of pillows (from an undisclosed location..) put them in the floor of my bathroom and sit there til the wee hours of the morning ‘reading’. We bought energy drinks this time too. However.. sadly this party probably consisted of about half talking (about boys obviously, well not the whole time but a lot of the time..) and half reading and half going crazy from over tiredness. So fun. Liz and I shared my top bunk and Alex slept on the floor. Ha, in the morning Larissa almost stepped on Alex “Sian! There is a person here!!” “What!? No. Who!?” So funny. Not much happening Tuesday, that I can’t remember. Probably because of my NO SLEEP.
Oh! Wednesday was exciting. For sports afternoon we went skiing again!!! Except this time I went with people who had never even touched ski’s before. So it was a change of crowd but still so fun. It was the first day that it snowed from the sky as well! Not from big yellow machines! So that actually made it hard.. cause you can’t see where you are going. But I didn’t wipe out so hard this time! It was a different, easier run. Only bad wipe out is when I fell and my legs went over my head and so I was sitting there with my butt in the air. So beautiful. But it was so crazy for me to think, ‘A week from now I will be in Auckland in summer. When right now I am skiing in the Alps. :O’ But sooo much fun! Liz hated skiing. So cute. And Alex grew up in Africa so that was exciting. So we got back, had dinner and then we had AUSTRIAN DANCING!! Yay! I love love love it so much. No one really had any Dirndls or Lederhosen though but it was still awesome. So we did some Austrian dancing from about 7.45pm til 10.45pm. Dance the night away! Hans Peter Plutz soooo cute. We discovered that lederhosen gives men diaper bum. Heh. He used me as a dance partner example once, I felt pretty dang special. And we got to eat some apfelstudel! YUM! So after Austrian dancing a small amazing group of people, (Danish, Tim, Kenton, Alex, Mel, Shelly, Me, Emma and William) went sliding down the Planai! It was incredible! You get all bundled up then you hike up a ways and you slide down on your butt. But usually end up rolling around and flailing down the mountain. Snow gets everywhere. But then you have to try and go to bed high on adrenaline. Okay! Thursday.. lets see.. pretty normal day I think.. I had one last mother-daughter-sister date  and in the evening the river named the Talbach had lights set up along it and singers and musicians! So we went and checked that out and supported some of our T-hof talents. So cold but really pretty. All the little run-offs that go into the river were frozen. Gorgeous! But super slippery.
I, along with those around me, have noticed something about Ice and myself. We just aren’t friends. There is no hope of a good relationship between us. I love the snow and the cold but Ice and I.. Ice always trips me up and makes me fall over, A LOT. I got quite the rep. the last couple of weeks for constantly falling over. For instance on this Talbach walk I had to link arms with people to avoid disaster. But I don’t mind! I love falling. It is fun. Plus you get great bruises and usually awesome stories. Example: Liz and I were walking from the Lecture Hall to the Main house and I just completely fell on my butt and gained the name ‘Bambi’. Example: Connor was being a poop like usual and so I decided to race him down the stairs. I thought I could be all tomb-raideresque and miss a couple stairs.. bad idea MacKenzie. I jumped (valiantly I might add) ended up landing on my knees on the last stair and falling straight on my face. I was wearing rip jeans so I got a rug burn on one of my knees and one of the rips I had fixed burst open. It was fun though! Caused a good number of laughs.  I also discovered that I am horrible at spilling things. Walking back to the Lecture Hall from the Main House after coffee break EVERY DAY coffee would end up on my arm. I was also sitting on Shelly’s bed with coffee once.. can you guess what happened? Yup. Coffee. On the pillow and bed. Stained the mattress..  Hence how I got the nickname; Dori. After I received this nickname we decided to watch Finding Nemo to see if I truly was like Dori. The entire movie, a select few kept repeating ‘THAT IS SO MACKENZIE!’ ‘DORI DORI!’ ‘JUST KEEP SWIMMING!’. Wonderful isn’t it?
Anyway!! Wow. I got distracted.. Friday is when the tears started showing up. For me it started when I did my devo. at breakfast, talking about how I had to go home even if it was hard blah blah blah, then you get to that point where you can’t talk so you are just standing there trying to hold in the tears. A couple escape. The room is dead silent. I manage to finish then Martin comes up and hugs me and I run to my seat and cry on Emmer. Great start to the day! We then had a worship, prayer, baby lecture, sharing time and there was crying. Liz was singing and that made me cry. Sigh. It was so nice though seeing how people have grown sooo much over the last 3 months, you feel so proud and they are not just friends but brothers and sisters. Then there was a lot a picture taking, even though we all looked like crap cause we had cried so much. Everyone was writing notes for each other  Then we had a beautiful lunch of soup and Kaisershmar’rn YUM! The afternoon was spend with people running around trying to pack before the room check at 4pm. Somehow my room-mates and I had time to go on one last date. I ended up just chucking all my stuff into a box and bringing that box to the room I was going to stay in for the next 3 nights. Then we all got dressed up all fancy and went to the glorious dinner. It was so beautiful and delicious, salad, main and tiramisu for dessert! Everyone was looking fine all dressed up nice and pretty, making already beautiful people even more beautiful (if that was possible). We ate in our family groups  Then we had our grad ceremony! So I was really, really hyper during the ceremony and kept on cracking up. Eis just kept looking back at me and laughing like I was going crazy. We sang some songs, Richard said a few quick words, some more songs then we each got called up separately and hugged Martin, Luke, Philip and Elizabeth while getting all kinds of papers. I was really hyper and I was rubbing off on Emma. It was so much fun. There is nothing like a ceremony as an excuse to be really, really loud. The staff goes up and I of course go crazy cause I love them. When Martin calls my name I decided that it would be a good idea to kiss Elizabeth on the cheek. Success! Much to her adorable awkwardness. Afterwards there was a crap load of photos taken, a glorious dance party in the Lecture hall where Helen and Thomas showed us some interesting… German songs. After dancing for a good long while we went to Maria’s where I had my Radler! It was wonderful. So we returned and a couple of us decided to watch some Scrubs because everyone was sitting around being sad and I couldn’t handle it. Scrubs is a great distraction, and so we did that late into the night. A pretty fantastic night if you ask me.
This brings us to Saturday morning, doomsday. First of all, a crap load of people left before breakferst. Not okay! Including my beloved roomie, Larissa. And so the morning started off with tears again. (Larry I love you!) Breakferst, where there were some more tears, a great devo by Elizabeth and some Adele singing. Then there were more good-byes. There were about 10 students staying for the weekend to help clean, a couple staying for the whole week. So we had to start cleaning at 10 meaning I had to say bye to the rest of my room-mates! (I love you guys) and go clean. At least I got to clean with Nat, who as I am cleaning I hear her talking to herself. I think hmmm maybe she is listening to a lecture and just agreeing.. nope she was listening to her German learning thing and repeating words! I had a good giggle. It was a horrible day filled with horrible good-byes. My dear sister Alex. Then at 6pm Liz, the Danish’s and a few others were leaving. Liz cried so hard on my shoulder that her nose started bleeding. Then Danish (moustache, not hair) and I had a super awkward hug where you know when you both go for the same side? Yup. So afterward I attack hugged him and he fell on the chair behind him and it was gloriously awkward. Ha. Oh and he let me touch his moustache! Which I had been asking to do pretty much the whole 3 months. It’s a rocking moustache. So that night to get out heads out of sadness Emma, Shelly, Kenton, Thomas, Timmy, Jenny, Connor and I hung out in the foyer (where Tim played us some wonderful tunes) , went to Papa Joes (where we learned how to flip a toothpick in your mouth.. and ate a super spicy pepper.. hit our heads on the super low lights.. took super flattering photos..) and then! We all went and had a Planai sliding party. We played on the mountain for about 2 hours. First you have to manage to climb up without sliding or falling down the whole way. Then you get to the top and we all held hands and slid down together or wiped out together.. Poor Jenny’s pants fell down and she got like snow burn! Ouch. Then we started just playing around at the bottom slope and going down on the sleds and finding creative ways to do it. For instance, Kenton, Tim, Thomas and I all piled up on each other and tried going down that way. It was a pretty nasty, yet glorious wipe out. My face made a crunching sound when it hit the snow.. But it was so fun!! I love snow. Stupid New Zealand for not having snow. Or cold Christmas’s! What is that!? After this fun party we danced around Stephan’s car while he blasted music and went to bed. I’d say it was a pretty dang fantastic night.
Sunday morning sun is shining through my window pane! Ain’t no place I’d rather be. Wake up early to say bye to Tim (I love you and I can’t wait to work in Italy with you!) Back to bed.. Breakferst yum! Then we cleaned the dining rooms and redid the plastic and decorations on the tables. It looks pretty fine!! Hahah Shelly and Emma decided to put one of the decorations crooked just to bug the Germans. It will work. Cause it bugged me! Hahah I spend the afternoon packing and writing notes. Then I really had to go out and do something because I could feel the water works wanting to turn on so we went to Maria’s. We all smelt like crappy smoke afterwards but oh well. People discovered that I was a Children’s Entertainer (not a clown!) and enjoyed themselves about that fact.. We destroyed a lot of toothpicks.. But generally a good time. Came back and didn’t want to go to bed even though we were sooo super tired cause that means you have to wake up and that means that it is a new day, the day I was leaving. After trying to procrastinate by checking out the Tenne, having a tiny kitchen party with some bread, erdnuss crème and hasole I was drifting. It was bed time. Sigh.
BEEP. Monday morning has arrived. The day of departure. I did so well all morning not a tear shed while I had the morning off to finish packing and writing notes. Probably because I was by myself with awesome music. It was whenever I’d look at someone that the tears would explode. Then at about 11am I go to check my emails and there is a FB wall post from Liz saying I MISS YOU SOOO MUCH. Here they come! Tears, tears and more tears. I don’t think I have cried so much ever. I feel like not even when I moved to New Zealand did I cry that much. I went and cried on Emma. Then had to go finish packing. They stopped for a while. Then it was lunch time. Great. Last meal. We are standing around helping out and Julia comes and hugs me and bam. What do you know!? More tears. So that spout stopped and I go sit down, it is just a normal lunch until Hans Peter gets up to make the announcements and he says, “We have some students leaving us today, including MacKenzie (my head hits the table cause I could feel the tears) who has been with us for quite a while. Hopefully Tauernhof won’t fall apart without her. It was a pleasure having you.” My head stays down for a good couple minutes. So after lunch I attempted to run away to clean tables but nope, the goodbyes started. Liz, Luke, Martin, Liselotte. This was going to suck. So I escaped upstairs but then the ski instructors had to leave to go ski and so I came back down and as soon as I turned to corner and saw Connor, Thomas and Philip standing there the water works started up again. Then Shelly (my dear I will see you again <3) Ugh. Then the whole rest of Tauernhof. Lothar, Nat, Julia, Sarah, Jess, Kaitlynn, Anna, Micah, Steph, Emma, Nathan. Kathrin drove us to the train station where we bumped into Elizabeth! So I got to say bye to her.
I am so thankful that I was on the train to Salzburg with Mel and Jenny. If I was by myself I don’t think I would have been able to handle it. I probably would have jumped off and ran back. So we get to Salzburg and I say bye to Mel and Jenny. Then I wondrously find the right bus to the airport, get to the airport and I ask to check on my extra bag. She says that she will go check it out. After a good long while she comes back and tells me that my ticket only allows me to pay for extra luggage per kg. It is 40 euro per kg and in total I’d have to pay 600 euros. I was like :O But then she went on to say that they were going to make a special exception and just charge me the price of an extra bag which was 60 euros! So amazing. They could probably tell I had been crying like a baby straight from the womb. It was a good trip, hardly anything worth mentioning happened which is great considering my trip there was a nightmare. On my first long flight I sat next to a Finnish couple, I feel bad cause I didn’t talk to them at all. I probably looked like someone died. And the next long flight it was this super cute old Asian couple, I still hardly talked to them but I did a little and she gave me a hug when we got off the plane. So cute.
So I get through customs all fine and come out of the arrivals gate and Saskia and Mum are standing right there! I run to hug Saskia and then proceeded to hug everyone else who was there. Shivon and Radley were there too!! So sweet. My grandparents and my family. Of course, I cried. Not a lot though but I think I was just crazy overwhelmed. We went to McDonalds and got me coffee then went home.
It is really weird being back. So surreal. This morning I woke up and thought that I was still at Tauernhof and that I had to say goodbye to everyone all over again. It is really humid and warm. Last night I asked Mum if we could buy a cutlery bucket for the table. The idea of having internet anywhere in your house boggles my mind. What should I eat for breakfast? Gee I don’t know I don’t have Lothar to tell me what to eat. It almost feels like if I didn’t have the photos as proof it didn’t actually happen. So even though it is crazy weird and I know that it is going to take me a good little while to adjust to normal life, it will happen eventually and I know that this is where I am supposed to be. Studying Anthropology and German next year at uni. You can’t stay at Tauernhof forever, gotta rip the band-aid off at some point even though it hurts like crazy.

I”VE BEEN THINKING

“To Lose is to Gain”

11th December 2011

Matthew 16:26. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (NIV)

Back sometime in 1950 an old man dressed in old raggedy clothes was walking through a large park in New York City. He passed by a kind-hearted gentleman who right away noticed how cold and hungry the old man looked. The gentleman held out his hand with a few coins, however he received a strange response: “Thanks mister, I am not really as hungry as I am lonely. Sure I need the money, but I would be just as happy to shake your hand.”

There are thousands all around the world who share this man’s feeling. Their lives are empty as they have no one to turn to for company and encouragement. They have no friends to share their troubles and concerns with. There are many people who would gladly trade their wealth for even one friend who would be there just to listen and understand.

Remember the story from the New Testament Jericho Road incident? Two men claiming to be wise and very religious, passed by the man who was injured. However the Good Samaritan stopped to help. The first two thought it would be easier to cross over and go down the other side of the road so they didn’t waste their time. They didn’t want to spend their money or have to take any responsibility. If you think about, from almost every ones point of view except the Christian’s it seems much simpler and more sense to use the other side of the road.

We all find that as we go through life each day we face the same choices as these three men did. We can be choose to be a friend or not to be a friend; to do the wrong thing or to do the right. But if Christ is Lord in our life then there is only one way we should be travelling. His instruction to us has clearly been set down: Leviticus 19:18 but love your neighbour as yourself. To really love your neighbour you share in their sorrows as well as joys. It means to be understanding, forgiving and generous. A Christian if they are living a Godly life will not try and see how much they can get out of this life but rather how much they can put in it.

I’ve been thinking that the God makes it pretty clear in the Bible. 1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. If we don’t have the desire within us to help others, or to give our time and our talent in order to cause happiness for someone else, then we are missing one of the great experiences of life.

We are missing what it means to have peace and contentment in our lives, for as much as we give we receive—and much more.

To Ponder

In what ways have you learned that if you lose your live, you will find it?

WRITTEN BY JOHN GUMMER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE CHURCH NEWSCAST

I”VE BEEN THINKING

“Live Positively!”

4th December 2011

1 Timothy 4:4-5. 4. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5. because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. (NIV)

I read of this story from the Ozark Mountains in south-central United States. It is about a man who was teaching in a village school. He had become quite friendly with one of the local villagers who although old, had a wonderful zest for life. His favourite pastime was to take long hikes alone through the hills. The school teacher often met this man out of school hours and on holidays as he, too, did considerable hiking. The old man always met the school teacher with the same spirited greeting: “Young man, it’s a fine day, isn’t it?”

One day early in the winter the school teacher was caught in a nasty blizzard. Blindly shuffling along trying desperately to stay on the pathway, he suddenly stumbled upon his old hiking companion. Dressed in warm clothes and looking comfortable, he called out his same familiar greeting: “Young man, it’s a fine day, isn’t it?”

The school teacher certainly didn’t agree and decided to say so. “What do you mean by calling this a fine day?”

The old man stopped, straightened up a little and replied, “Well, it is the finest day of its kind that I have ever seen!”

What a wise man to be looking at the positive! He had decided that it was much better not to sympathise with a bad situation, no matter how miserable it may be, which resulted in a wonderful philosophy of life.

Also from the United States is the story of a woman selling gardenias on a street in New York. She used an interesting sign to advertise her flowers: “I am not hungry and have no children to feed. I sell flowers because I love them and enjoy selling them. If you care to buy one they are $1 each and I would be pleased to thank you. If you are not interested that is Ok as well, and God speed you on your way.” She sold five trays in fifteen minutes! Why? She used the positive approach.

In the 1800’s a blind man was sitting on a corner of a street with a lantern beside him. A passer-by was curious and asked why, being blind, did he require a lantern. The blind man replied, “I have it so no one will stumble over me.” He was thinking of others rather than himself. He was using the positive approach to life.

I’ve been thinking that Christians have within their reach a faith that can change the world. The sun shines on the lives of people who trust in Jesus Christ and only His truth can set people free. By living our faith, we live positively.

To Ponder

If we have no big problems, do we then allow the little ones to seem big?

WRITTEN BY JOHN GUMMER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE CHURCH NEWSCAST

I”VE BEEN THINKING

“We All Face Storms”

27th November 2011

Mark 4:39. He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. (NIV)

The ocean which had been so blue, calm and peaceful, early in the afternoon suddenly became a turbulent, black looking and angry sea, dashed with foam and white caps. The terrible storm brewing sent most passengers terrified to their cabins. Some of the less fearful among them gathered in groups along the deck to watch what was happening. As one of the senior officers of the ship passed one of the groups, one of the passengers asked him, “Do you think we will be having a bad night?”

“Yes, it will certainly be quite stormy.” came the reply. He quickly added reassuringly, “However there is nothing to worry about. We have a fine ship and plenty of sea to manoeuvre in.”

Just then there was a vivid flash of lightning followed by deep rattling thunder. The passenger showing more signs of nervousness exclaimed, “Man, look at that storm!”

“No,” countered the officer, “don’t look at the storm, look at the ship!” Then he very calmly proceeded to tell them how the ship was constructed and how it could ride out any storm. He didn’t however minimise the storm or the difficulties they would encounter. What he did share was that he had unshakable faith in the ship and was confident it was sufficient to withstand the stress of even the greatest storm.

I’ve been thinking that the Christian, too, must face storms. God never promised any of us, no matter how sincerely we follow Him, that we will escape from the difficulties this life throws at us. However, what He does though is promise that His strength will be more than sufficient to meet any obstacles that might come along. No matter how severe the pain we encounter may be, His grace will always be ample to handle it.

The secret is this: Instead of looking at the storm, look at the ship. Instead of looking at the troubles that attack us, look at the power that God can give us to withstand and conquer them. Think of His great love which comes to soothe us and still the troubled waters.

I have read about a certain group of American Indians who have their own version of Psalm 23. They translate verse 5, “You anoint my head with oil,” by saying, “He puts His hand on my head and all the tired is one.”

We all take great assurance also form verse 4, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

To Ponder

Have there been times when God has stilled the troubled waters of your life?

WRITTEN BY JOHN GUMMER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE CHURCH NEWSCAST

I”VE BEEN THINKING

“Choose Life!”

20th November 2011

Deuteronomy 30:19. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live (NIV)

Life is dangerous, from a human standpoint. Accidents happen, sickness overwhelms us, and fires break out. It is natural for such things to cause fear and they just cannot be ignored out of hand. So then, how do we escape from the power of this ever present enemy of fear? One way is to reverse our approach. We can’t just eliminate the external causes of fear; we need reassurance from within.

Troubles can come to those who are living the Christian way just as they can do to non – believers, but the Christian has somewhat of an advantage. We are given the power to overcome as we can draw from the One who cannot be conquered. We of course can be wounded through our human weakness, but the great Physician will be there with His healing power.

Death may separate us from our loved ones; nevertheless we have assurance that our Saviour is the resurrection and the life and those who have trusted in Christ for their earthly journey, will find Him faithful to carry them through the challenge of loss, too. We may be faced with loneliness or even the persecution of our fellow human beings, but Jesus is a friend that never leaves us or deserts us. With this faith, we are able to face life straightforwardly.

A woman who was celebrating her eightieth birthday, declared to her family and friends who had gathered about her on this day of celebration, that she was still young and hopeful. Although she had been confined to bed for the past two years with arthritis, she had lived a very full life and she was eternally grateful for every minute of it. As she was busy opening cards and gifts from folk all around the country she exclaimed, “What a beautiful sunset of my life I am having! My life has been just like a book—and one with a very happy ending.”

I’ve been thinking that this is the way God wants life to be for us. In the beginning we are like a little trickle of water, not at all strong or very impressive as we start on the journey of life. As we move on, the trickle turns into a stream, and then into a great river. We cut out a deeper river bed as we go, and the deeper waters travel with more calmness. Just as the river broadens as it reaches the sea, so the life of a Christian flows in majestic triumph as it empty’s at last into the great ocean, which is eternity with God.

To Ponder

Are most of our troubles due to the fact that we lead material rather than spiritual lives?

WRITTEN BY JOHN GUMMER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE CHURCH NEWSCAST

Mankind is ridiculous. Today we went to Mauthausen, a concentration camp in sorta northern Austria. Every room you walked into you just had the thought ‘I wonder how much pain and sadness happened in this room.’ run through your head. You walked through the back gate that opens up to a courtyard where all the prisoners got sorted and had their clothes and personal posessions taken away. You go up some stairs and through the side door of the main entrance to the area where they had ‘Role Call’. And we just slowly wandered through the camp listening to our audio guides. I am pretty sure that there wasn’t a single person who didn’t get effected. The worst was the execution chambers; including a gallows, gas chamber rooms, cremation chambers, a disection table and a giant fridge type room where they kept the dead bodies for burning. There was three stone walls and an electric wire fence where lots of people ‘commited suicide’ or were just executed. There was also a memorial park with statues dedicated to different countries and a quarry you could also go down to. First you had to walk down the ‘Stairs of Death’ and the ‘Parachuting’ place where people jumped or got pushed off.
Overall it was a pretty gloomy day.
But you could also look at it like this, I am so blessed that I never had to live in a time like that.