So, after this whole crazy crazy first week, it's all official that DTS is well and truly all on. As if we could have believed otherwise. This first week had been a rollercoaster, with fun, laughter, tears, angry-ness and general mayhem and chaos, but a lot of goodtimes.
I'm back at my house now, feeling a weird mix of exhausted and empty and way too full of emo and thoughts and such so i think after posting this i will shower, pajama, and watch some Scrubs! yup, sounds like an excellent prescription.
Just wanted to sign on and let you knwo that it's been going well, and to post one or two pics to give you guys a bit of illustration to the name sthat you will probably see me mentioning over the next 5 months or so. It's soooo grea tot finally meet these studnets we've been praying for for so long and it was more than great to live in the hosue with them for a few days.
We took them on a bit of an excursion today around Downtown, an Amazing race set up if you will, and i thin kthey all had a good time. Pair that with the great corn bread and chilli dinner that the Davenports hosted for us, and it was a great Saturday.
Am defiantely looking forward to church tomorrow too, some of the students are gonna come with so that will be good
anwyasy
bed time so here's the pics. and all you phantom readers out there, how bout some comments eh
love yo uall lots
me




Our Amazing Race team at General Motors place (Ice Hockey home in Vancouver)


Crystal and I kissing a moose/mountie?!?!


The Starbucks checkpoint where we had to find "The Australian"


The lovely 7 girl students

So I have a new cell phone number here in vancouver
but thanks to nathan's good advice i'm not gonna put it here on my blog. Apparnetly that's a bad idea
My new number should have gone out in email but if you didnt' get it, email me
or leave me a comment
love you lots
will post more about DTS later
hill

So this is a bit of a weird post. And it will be short cuz it's nearly half eleven and time I was in bed!
I'm exhausted, but thanks for the prayers, I'm sleeping really well now! Exhasuted mostly cuz we've been busy! DTS is officially underway and as was to be expected, nothing has been quite as we expected! (how's that for something)
It's been sooooo great to meet our 13 studnets and the first 2 days have been great, beginning to build relationships and see these fresh faced students so excited about what God is going to do, and us even more so!
It's hard to belive that today was the one year anniversary of me starting my DTS, and now here I am as a staff member. weird.
On a not good note, I'm very sad to say that my friend Dawn had an accident on Monday, and broke her hand really badly. She is having some R&R time at my house, being taken care of by Randy and Rita, but as she was meant to be staying in the girls house with the girl DTS students, I am now staying here.
It's kinda crazy how it all panned out and now I am here albeit for only a week or so, but I'm pretty stoked about it, getting to know the girls and such, but at the same time it's uber tiring and there is a little part of me that misses my crazy high bunk bed!
But it's all good, and I am loving this so much.
Thank you to all of you who have prayed and thought and cared and called and emailed and hav been a part of me getting to this spot for this here and this now.
So, it's bed time.
Love you
will post again soon hopefully with some pictures!!!!

so, it's been a crazy week
I actually can't remember what/when/why i last posted. hang on a tic.
ah, ok, i remember now
So yeah, training is all finished, and so this week has been flat out working, between cleaning the houses ready for students to live in, making welcome baskets and cards, and, very very very exciting, getting my BC drivers license!!!! woooot!
so as of this week i am now a road user on any side of the street. Bring it on!!! tehehe
it's going to be good and my first YWAM driving testing practice duty will be doing bread run on sunday night. For those of you who dont know the YWAMese, Bread run is a things we do every sunday night, where we drive to a bakery in Kerrisdale, and they give us all the bread they have at the end fo the day
so awesome.
so yeah, it's about a 20 minute drive, so it'll be a good trial run. i think i'll be sweet, cuz i aced the theory test, and have been biking a lot on the right hand side of the street, so my head is fairly well wrapped around it. we'll see though :)
Had a super exciting thing today, got to meet the first of the DTS students, who came in early with her parents and so got to bike over and give her the tour of the house and everything
was sooooo exciting, it's all real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anwyays, i gtg and get ready for JEn's birthday party tonihgt, will post again soon.
Also, I officially sent off my first real newsletter this week, so if you didnt' get it and you want it, let me know
it has useful things like contact details and ufn things like pictures! :)
Love you lots
hill

so here's a thought on leadership
we had our DTS training today and we were talking a lot about leadership and authority and respect and we did a bible study to give us a bit of biblical context on the whole thing. So we studied the relationship between Paul and Timothy and the mentoring rrelationship etc. And then we went through a bunch of different scriptures looking at who had influenced paul and timothy, and then how they in turn influenced others who went on to influence others again and so on and so forth.
Then Adam had a great idea of getting us all to write our names on the white board and then writing who has influenced us and how we then have to realise we have no idea who we have really influenced, or who has influenced the people who have influenced us. also totally connected to the sermon at church on sunday (guest speaker john bevere) when he was talking about how when Christians fulfill what God has called them to do, beit as an accountant or an evangelist, the knock on effect can't be measured, we never see how many lives we really effect until we're in heaven.
It made me homesick to be honest to write so many kiwi names on the board, as well as a lot of canadians, aussies and americans and other internationals, but it was really good to see all those names written down and be able to thinmk and pray about how you are all involved with the work that i am doing here. all of this is partly due to you and your words and work. pretty huge huh. So thanks.
we had a great dinner tonight, the DTS staff hosted Sara Fay, and did the good old pot luck thing. yay for american bbq chicken, rice, twice baked potatoes, veges and HOT BROWNIE AND BUTTERSCOTCH RIPPLE ICECREAM!
lol
anyways
it's sleep time now. need to gather my strength for biking to work tomorrow on the first rainy morning :( sigh
much love and pineapple lumps
hillary

So I figured that the hiking trip deserved a post all of it's own. Also, that makes it easier to include the pictures.
It was a really good time away, and now for the big reveal.....we went to Vancouver Island, near Nanaimo and Qualicum to be precise, and went for a three day hike in the Strathcona national park, guided by Layne's dad, Everette and their friend Alex. It was pretty intense, but really great to be working and walking together and encouraging each other and trying our best not to break limbs or dehydrate or any of those other fun things :)




We camped the two nights at an amazing spot called Lake Kwai, and it was really fun getting used to all the North American type bush safety things that are never really a concern when camping in New Zealand. I seem to remember the scariest thing in the NZ forest being a wild pig, and the most tent threatening thing to be avoided was a nikau palm branch full of water that might crash at anytime dousing you with water. Never had I considered the possiblity of bears and cougars and the need to carry "bear spray" or keep all our food, and toothpaste and other similarly scented things in a steel box 100m or so from the tents!
This is where we got to eat dinner though.......




The goal on the second day was Mount Albert Edwards, and unfortunately Stefan, Mark and I didn't make it all the way to the summit, but instead enjoyed some recoup time halfway up from one of the amazing rock shelves while the others powered up to the top. I can think of worst places to sit for a while though.....



also great was getting to spend time with Layne, albeit briefly,and her family being so hospitable and amazing and fun and taking care of us. Looking forward to going back to the island to hang out with them for sure!

So yeah, now it's back to reality and noise here in Vancouver, and I'm excited to say that I am going out now to IKEA with Stefan and Pam, so that should be fun.

Keep praying for us and for more students for the fall school!
lots of love, hillary

So it's a lovely grey Vancouver saturday morning. Peaceful, still, and still mostly warm despite the rain.
This will be a short post cuz I still have to brush my teeth and put my laundry on before heading out to IKEA with Stefan and Pam.
My muscles feel much better now, and I am enjoying the fact that i didn't have to be out of bed until 9 today. Also bonus was that we scored a free pack of bacon, so jacqui and I had baon and eggs for breakfast, an excellent weekend breakfast treat if I do say so myself.
Had my first day of bike commute yesterday, and even though my muscles were pretty angry at me, the saved time made it all worth while. Thank you so much for the emails and prayers, it's been great, and for your viewing pleasure.......



Also, quick update and praise, we have a location to run the DTS! a church that has been connected with our base for quite a while has agreed to let us use their buildings for the school! fully equipped industrial kitchen and everything, including accomodation for the male students. Thank you God! and thanks to you for your prayers.

Am back in Vancouver
Tired, and aching a whole lot
Will post more tomorrow.
Lots of love

So it's getting late, and my laptop is running low on power, so here's to keeping things brief.
Last night was hilarious, I'm glad to say that my roommate Jacqui has successfully passed through the BroTown kiwiana initiation, watching two full episodes of BroTown with me last night. Needless to say there was some explaining to be done, but all in all, I'm very pleased with her progress tehehe. We need to get the aussies roudn too cuz I know they will appreciate it, especially when Dad sends me a copy of Sione's wedding! (thanks dad!!!!!)
I won't be posting for the next few days as we head off bright and early tomorrow morning for a wilderness adventure (aka group bonding in the mountains!)
The DTS fall staff are all going to a mystery location to climb a mountain for 2 1/2 days with a mystery guide. very exciting. So will try and take some pictures and avoid getting eaten by any bears or cougars so i can live to blog again.
I'm sitting on my couch right now, rubbing some anti-flamme into my right wrist which is a bit stiff after today's epic adventure.
Last year living here i was always a convenient maximum of about 20 minutes walk/bus/train away from just about everything. Since moving back here now, though i love my new place, it's now about an hour walk away from anything.
So, today, after much deliberation over pictures and emails from craig's list (vancouver's trademe/trading post second hand website) jacqui and i made the trek on the bus out to kitsilano beach (1st and balsam for those with google earth) and bought a pair of bikes for $110 each. pretty mint mountain bikes in fairly good nick, and so we put them through the ultimate test of value for money by biking an epic 1 1/2 hours home (via the local Canadian Tire to buy very flash and useful bike helmets).
So yeah, feeling pretty chuffed, pretty fit, and pretty pleased with our endeavours all round.
So as I sleep now, there is though a definate feeling of the calm before the storm, as we head into a super busy period of work pre DTS with a full week of training, moving day at the base, the hiking trip, and a much anticipated trip to IKEA (either you get that one or you don't!)
but yeah, will post pics of my lovely bike (any suggestions for a name for the bike?) and will be back on friday-ish
Pray for safety for us too, between bears and injuries, we jsut wanna have a good time!
Love and pineapple lumps
hill

And here is some general hilarity

Some of the guys made this and they get money if you watch the video. Brilliant


And it is as crazy as you think, that does say 'Patio surfing'

So I forgot to post pics from our epic adventure
Here goes for some

Stuart and a Tim Horton's Canadian Maple donut. Best donut, EVER


Me and either Ari or Noah!?! Hanging in Winnipeg catchin gup with Dave and Heather at the Winnipeg base


Leigh driving! (funny that on a a road trip)


The cosy back seat team, Ange, me and Stefan

So, the saga of the toothbrush
Now most of you know I'm not really a squeemish person, but occaisionally I do get a bit funny when people mess with my personal things. Like my toothbrush, or peopleputting their shoes on my bed!
The first problem was with packing a big hurry and leaving NZ in a rush, and also wanting to be clean while i travelled the epic 21 hours or whatever to vancouver, I had my toothbrush in my carryon. But because of all the crazy carry on bag checking, my toothbrush got all touched and handled (i'm talking bristles too here) by the dude checking my bag at the airport. Gross. So needless to say I bought a new toothbrush in Vancouver when I arrived.
So that was fine and I used the toothbrush all throughout conference and everything. Good.
But then!
I got home and I was having a gumby-running-late-brushing-hair-crazy-morning moment where i totally fumbled and dropped my NICE NEW WONDERFUL toothbrush and it bounced off the rim of the toilet and onto the plunger. Gross. And again I say, GROSS.
Sigh
But now, it all works out for good, I have a new beautiful orange and white toothbrush from the dollar store next to the base. Good