YFC Whangarei

Day 1 - Today began our holiday camp with Youth For Christ. We had about 7 kids show up, which means there was more leaders than kids, but hey, it works! We had some really cool opportunities to get to know them one on one and start some fun conversations. I spent most of the day talking to this girl Laura, who is 13, and came to know Christ at a previous YFC camp with my leader Michelle. This girl can talk your ear off and may be able to quote movies better than I can, but we had a good time. Scottie took us up to some sand dunes north of Whangarei so we could spend the afternoon sand duning. All sand duning really is is sledding on sand. It was actually a lot of fun. The view from the top of the dunes was breathtaking, and we had some great moments with the kids to soak it all in. I have some great pictures and even a video I will try to get up of me and Rebecca sliding and then busting at the bottom. It's awesome! Enjoy!

Day 2 -Today Scottie took us to the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The coast of New Zealand is absolutely breathtaking. He started out taking us and our favorite middle schoolers to a harbor that some really good dive spots are at. Then he had us pick up an object along the shore that represented God or how we relate to God. It was really neat to hear the kids who may or may not know God relate to Him. It opened the door for some conversations later. We then drove over to Whale Bay Beach, which was even more incredible than I could have imagined! We climbed up a large rock for a bird's eye view of the beaches. Then we walked over to Mermaid Cove, which was part of Whale's Bay that had these crazy black rocks for sand. Then we hiked through mud and mountains over to the other side of Whale's Bay where we had lunch and played some beach games. The water was way too cold to swim in, but the weather was absolutely perfect for a day lounging around the beach! Check out these pics!

Day 3 - The third and final day of our YFC Holiday Program was by far the most popular. We had about 20 kids show up! We drove down to SnowPlanet, which is an indoor snowboarding and skiing arena. It was about a 2 hour drive, so once again, we got to know these kids so much more. SnowPlanet was pretty sweet, and even though I didn't ski or snowboard, it was a lot of fun to watch. The kids had a really great time too. After finishing in the freezing temperatures, we headed over to the hot pools. The Hot Pools were basically a water park with warm water. Once again, the kids had a blast! Pretty much what I learned through this crazy week of middle school youth camp was that God works in the little things as much as He works in the big things. He doesn't need a fancy youth program to draw kids to Himself. He can take 7 kids and some leaders and do something amazing. I would like to think that these kids will remember us after this week. Laura gave me her email address and I would love to keep in touch with her and continue to pour into her life. So now we look ahead to finishing here in Whangarei with some manual labor around the office, and back to Auckland on Saturday! Enjoy the pics!