day an a half

yestahday! had a free night. therefore we played spoons, and me'n john-mark played a massive 13 game set of pingpong. it was the best either of us has played, and we made sure to tell amazing stories about how BA we were at pingpong. i'm gonna be able to play my bros decently after this... heck yes. apparently there is a nationwide pingpong tournament pursuits goes into every year during some weekend we go to in a few weeks.. we must own!

i hitchhiked for the first time today. 10 of us set out to matamata during our free afternoon.... its about an 8 minute drive or an hour walk. rims and his four girls (chi-won joanna sylvia and alisha) got picked up first (since we went in groups to disperse ourselves evenly) followed by rasa lukas and nik. then me'n john-mark were excited to get our turn, but it never came... we walked all 8k into town then skateboarded around a bit till we found everyone else. we thought we could skate the whole way, but the roads are pretty much tar with gravel pressed into it so it wasn't skateable... the one time we got close the dude got out of his car an starting swearing at us cuz he thought we flipped him off. nope... sadnesss...it was still a good trip.

tonight were played volleyball, pursuits vs. the family ministry. its gonna be fun hopefully. mebe more poker afterwards, possibly a serious game! or more skateboarding.. i learned how to do a shove-it. its easy.. so its nothing super special. but doing it makes me want to learn more, so i think i will. i've got time..

yesterday an todays lectures have really kicked my butt... on tuesday night sam ( a massive german speaker who is amazingly intense about everything (also destroyed me in pingpong..)) talked about having intimacy with God, into our relationship with him, which would lead to our 'destiny' or whatever. i wasn't thinking much of it, until my aussie roomate kristin started asking questions, like what a relationship with God actually was, and how he didn't actually know if he loved God. it freaked me out, because it described exactly what i have been thinking for a few years.. yeah, i undoubtedly believe God is the only absolute there is, and that he loves me, and that maybe i have a relationship with Him but i have never felt it... we had a pretty intense night of prayer with some of the leaders and other students, then later were discussing it in our room.. we started thinking about God AS our father, and that even though we may not go down the path were supposed to, with love and support he'd let us go into the path we wanted, just like a father would. it sounded amazing and profound and he said he didn't even really mean to say it, so we knew it was from God. then the very next mornings lesson was all about identity in Christ, and how God is a father and all that stuff... it was soooo cool... were both on our own little journey's to be hit with the holy spirit and start truly understanding our love for God. today was just another step as we watched the crucifixion on the passion of the Christ, i really felt overwhelmed of how much he loved me and wanted to be my friend, regardless of my disobedience and failures. i coulda cried, but i think i let pride get in my way. i signed up for 4 am prayer room duty, so i'm gonna really try to get disciplined and get to know God. love Him... i have a lot of understanding but its time for me to work on relationship. no more talk, i've gotta give all or nothing.

*sigh*

so i'm excited for tomorrow, and the next day, cuz i've got a lot to think about and experience. and TONS of ping pong to play. oh man. get jazzed.