Tis the season.

There is nothing quite like 70+ degree weather to stunt the Christmas season vibe. This is my second summer Christmas, and they are not what they are cracked up to be (like the Corona commercials would lead you to believe). As of recently this summer holiday, I have played the role of 'Santas little helper,' packing and mailing toys to all over New Zealand and Australia. I have found it quite interesting to see the inner-workings of small business, namely a online based toy shop.

Many neat things have occurred recently in church and school life. My final scores came back the other day and it looks like I pulled through with 3x B+'s and a single A. I'll take it. At Church, the prep and planning stages of establishing contact then bringing a team to the missionaries living in Rakiraki Fiji, is well underway. A couple emails to DCC's team back home put me in touch with the heart and ministry model for Montana, which I will try to incorporate into ABC's overseas mission model. Please continually pray for this process, it's exciting and daunting at the same time.

Random news that's cool to me (and possibly me alone : )

-Sold my Kona touring bike on NZ's version of Ebay for more than I (my mother) bought it for then bought a meticulously kept Giant OCR2 racing bike with carbon fiber forks/stem etc. This trade simultaneously allowed me to stack some cash away in the bank for school and buy a meannnn bike.

Prayer requests:

-Work, post December 20th
-My leadership with the Junior High and High school students here in Avondale. I finished a book called "Contemplative Youth Ministry" by Yaconelli and I was challenged to shake up the way I have been doing things for the last few years.... pray for discernment.
-Allergies

Now for something completely unrelated, half a reflection:

I was listening to the radio today (a practice that rarely to never, occurs in NZ) and I started focusing on the pop lyrics to a song, "I want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world, like the only one you've ever loved." It went on to suggest a less romantic premise of a spectacular, other worldly, one night stand, that would fix her seemingly endless quest for love. I have heard it said, "sin is a legitimate need met in a illegitimate way," and this seemed like the poster song to that statement. Genuine  relationship is so powerful, humans crave this love and attention but don't know where to find it. It seems pop music can be like a thermometer dipped into a specific culture, exposing its guts. I don't have any particularly deep insight to leave you with, I guess though, my heart just goes out to her. What a sad place to be. Maybe in that self-inflicting search of hers she will find true love that lasts a lifetime. All I can say is: what a good, faithful and loving God we serve,  I'm glad my search ended some 3+ years ago now. I can't imagine what life would look like outside of the reality that is the risen Christ now.

His,
Piper