Blitzed it!!!

So this is sort of my where originally my travelling story would have ended. So I felt its appropriate to write something memorable and I hope and pray it is also inspiring to you as a reader.

Now at the start of my journey I remember sitting around a table with my mum and my dad and I remember being in tear. I remember feeling emotions I didn't even think I had and the daunting challenges that awaited me as I first stepped on that plane to New Zealand. I had no idea of the plan or the transformation that God had in store for me.

So touch down in New Zealand and I have been blessed there as I have met old friends and met new friends. I have done all sorts of things and I have been to some truly spectacular parts of New Zealand and I have love every minute. 

I have also been able to live in a new community and have been able to spend time with kids from all kinds of hard back grounds, I have been able to work with truly inspiring people who work hard despite there hardships, I listen to elder people who have lead lives that one day I hope I can mirror and I am so thankful for the city of Christchurch and the people I have met and share life with. 

Also I have found Miriam and it has been exciting to watch God not just work in mr but also in Miriam as well and also as a couple we have been able to grow each other, challenge each other in our faith and also grow in relationship with each other. 

Just as I had got myself into a community and a family I had to leave and the prospect of leaving two families was almost heart breaking. I got onto the plan to the US and eventually I arrived at Bethelwoods (Bethel - house of God - in the woods) which lives up to its name spectacularly. Here I got see some really beautiful people giving up there time, energy, emotion and money all for so that kids could come to camp and know Christ and come to know him as there lord and savour, I met kid of the age of 5 preach thing that most adult would understand, I saw as my L.I.T's transform from this awkward bunch of teenager to these leader that I am I pray one day each in there own way will change the world. I also in that respect gained a third family and one which I will never forget. 

So now I am at camp and thinking about how much I miss my three families and how really it's not three it's actually all one family and the only reason that is the because through God and his faithfulness to me. As Paul writes to the Corinthians I feel like this sums up my travelling pretty well.

1 Corinthians 2: 1-5

New International Version (NIV)

 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

So I pray that through me and my blog writing that you will come and know God and that you can be encouraged by the journey that God has/is/will be taking me on. 

God bless

Blitzy

Let all that you do be done in love!

Hello everyone 

Apologies for how long it has been since I last post a blog. These past couple of months at Bethelwoods have just been life changing. 

I came to Bethelwoods two years ago and I can honestly say that the expectation that this years camp would be the same was wrong. God has this strange way of taking your expectation completely flipping it, twisting it and making it into something more beautiful and majestic that we could ever have imagined.

I have met some really amazing people this summer, I have been blessed to enter in to this awkward/diverse/strangely dynamic group of people. There are people at camp from 5 mins down the road and people for the otherwise of the world. There are people who are so extrovert that its annoying and some people that are so introvert that you feel you should prod them to try and get a response. There have been time of laughter, times of tear, time of frustration and a lot if God moments. 

Bethelwoods has been a huge part of my life and It has been an amazing experience watching campers from two years ago coming back and seeing then growing more in their faith. A lot of the campers from two years ago came back to do the L.I.T. (leadership in training) and C.I.T (Counselor in training) which made me very proud and blessed by God. 

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. 

This verse seem to have been my verse for this year at camp because I have just found this amazing joy from working with these kids. Being able to inspire them, watch them and share God's word with them.

A particular group of camper that I will never forget we're my LIT group. This was a group that I was a Counselor for two weeks and I loved it. These 13/14 year olds amazed me every single day. The way that this group of seven started out this awkward and shy group and by the end of these two weeks and they became this beautiful example of a family. At closing program when I said goodbye to this group of seven I was pretty emotional. The most inspiring part of these weeks was my Co-Counselor Dianna and as we went through the book of Ephesians with our L.I.T I watched in awe as Dianna just filled these young leaders with knowledge and wisdom that could only come from know Jesus. These bible studies we where I saw God beauty as these LIT became more and more in love with the discussion and in so doing so became more in love with Jesus. I am so thankful for my LIT and the this experience. 

So I feel like this post was a bit all over the place and I feel like there are a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm not to worried about that as long as God is glorified through this blog then that's all I care about.

So thanks for reading this blog and for your prayers and concerns.

God Bless

Blitzy