Recap of staff retreat

This weekend LT, Steve, Tack, Rebecca (Loren's PA) and I went to Dansey's Pass for a staff retreat as our last weekend together before students get here. We had an awesome time resting and relaxing. (Which in our case meant staying up extremely late and having crazy adventures). It was a wonderful time to just have fun with each other. We all got a chance to practice driving on the four hour drive, worked together trying to get meals eaten and cleaned in the below freezing temps and encouraged each other as we explored and tried daring new things.


Highlights:
The beauty of New Zealand. It's everywhere! Bright blue, snow capped mountains, amazing sun sets, CRAZY blue rivers and oceans!
Being gutsy trying to rope swing over the river and the zip line.
Seeing a real penguin come out of the ocean and find shelter on the beach. (We waited for 2 hours in the COLD to see this darn (but incredibly cute little penguin! And seriously how many people can say they've seen a penguin the wild!)
Climbing, hiking, resting, playing and laughing with the awesome and endearing SDTS 2012 staff team!

Rope swing over the river.

Morning hike.

LT, Steve and Tack (and the few hours of warmth we have outside the valley in the sun). Elephant Rocks.

The token New Zealand sheep photo. Steve tried to catch one at the Elephant Rocks. "Ok, I guess ya, they are pretty fast."

The team "Band photo". 

Planking...

The craziest tree I've ever seen. It's grown thru the rock and than the branches are growing straight up. (It's in a valley so I'm assuming the branches grow that way to try to reach the few sun rays that make it down but I don't know. It was in the middle of where they filmed a couple of the scenes for the first Narnia movie and the guys set it was a set prop at first but it's not. Totally legit).

Roots straight through the rock

Whale fossils in the mountains...how did that happen?

Beavers house from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Ancient Maori cave drawings

Loren

Seals at Bushy Beach, Oamaru

You can't really see him, but on the beach is the penguin we waited two hours to see come into the colony.

The first of our students arrive on Thursday. I'm filled with excitement, anxiousness, nerves, and hope for what God is going to do in the lives of the 18 of us this school. Everyday God shows himself in new ways, to us as a school, a staff and personally. I'm thankful for a weekend away, it was cool for me to realize Sunday night when we still had an hour or so drive back that all I wanted to do was go home and in that moment home was here, in my bed in Oxford, New Zealand. I'm not sure what God's plans are for the next five months. But I'm hopeful, I know that His plan is perfect, that has rarely meant that I've understood it (or even enjoyed it sometimes) but I trust Him. Sometimes it takes every bit of me but I trust Him that the next few days of craziness as we get down to the final preparation and as we welcome in our students that God's been planning this school forever and all He's asking us to do right now is walk in obedience and enjoy His presence in every moment. 

Alright Lord, let's do this thing.