So I can't really even begin to explain or document the last few days.
It's been hilarious
And random
And intense
And well *shrug* here goes.
So have been keeping on keeping on with classes and one on ones and everythign else that has been goign on. It's been very exciting and after a whole two weeks now, things seem to really be picking up speed.
Outreach teams have been decided now, and I will be working with Adam and Laura heading up a team of 6 students. More details for that will follow in email and the October newsletter.
Friday was so great, and even though I was up at the break of dawn (actually nope, it was dark out) it was totally worth it. Part of this DTS is that staff are involved in the local outreaches, so Jessa, myself, and four of our awesome wonderful students help out at a breakfast for homeless people in our area. It was a really great opportunity to help out a really great ministry, and learning from Pastor Joe and the other guys in the ministry. Also got to talk to a really talented girl from the First nations youthgroup they ahve there, who has been having some trouble lately here. Reminds me of me when I was 14, so hopefully will be able to get to know her more and speak more with her.
I am having the night off tongiht, watching 'Legally blonde' and (believe it or not) about to do my nails! tehehe. How girly can you get huh
So for those of you who were interested in the "experiment" I got given a pack of pastry, so I decided to get a batch of mince and cheese pies going. It's so far the beginning of something, cuz the pastry wasn't ideal, and I havne't got the gravy quite right, but otehrwise, the pie was goooood. A 'not quite perfect but pretty nice' taste of home. Gave one to Ralph (who as an English guy, of course gets it) and Stefan enjoyed one too as a 'cultural experience' tehehe. It was a really fun night actually, Stuart and I set up camp at his place with pies, icecream and he had a suprise for me for the night.........Footrot flats on DVD!!!! It was soooo fun, and i loved being able to have company enjoying south pacific goodness!!!!! Soooo great, thanks Stuart!
Today was an entirely different, yet equally entertaining story. Last week I won tickets through one of the local newspapers for "The Magic Flute" Stefan and I got quite excited about it, and so planned to go on the train and bus out to Surrey (about an hour travelling)
However, after all of it, it turned out to be a really weird show, an ADAPTATION of The Magic Flute, re-written and re-told for children and from a Canadian First Nations perspective. It was good for what it was, but definately a *ahem* little outside of what we expected.
Oh well, it was a fun day hanging out with Stefan, and I really enjoyed it.
I am also on a quest to get my haircut. Hmmm
Oh and how's this for great. Got a new bankaccount with no fees for 100 transactions per month. Not a big deal normally, but HUGE for me, thanks God! ATM and no feeeees :)
Anwyays
The plan for the next week is all mixed up because of Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday. I'm excited to have my second Thanksgiving in Canada, and will be enjoying it relaxing at home with the Parizeau family, Stefan, Stuart, Henri, Pam and Craig and Jamie. I am bringing Pavlova!!!!! mmmmmm Am so excited. Turkey is the coolest thing. Turkey everything............
I think there is definatley turkey in heaven....
Ok
this post is long now
hopefully not too boring
i'm kinda sleepy
Will make sure I take some really good pictures for the October newsletter.
Love you all lots
Hillary

So the saga of the bike chain
Don't get me wrong, please I beg of you, but if my bike chain falls off one more time while i'm grinding up some lovely Vancouver steep bit I'm gonna have a wobbly. Sigh
Though the look of grease stains on my hands and the inside cuff of my jeans makes me feel positively handy. As if I actually knew something about bike chains.....
It's alright though, I think I am going to have to suck it up and take my bike into the shop tomorrow during lunch. oh well.
Things are going really well, the first week panic attack stress moments are definately lessening, and it's been good to kind of get into a groove, and find a bit of normalcy as the routine begins to sink slowly in. It's crazy busy still, but at the same time, it's nice to know that I'm working really really hard, and on days like to day being able to see just a tiny glimpse of how God is already at work both in us and in our students. Had my first one on one today and after the dramas, uncertainty,tears and prayers to work out who would be in whose groups, she told me that all the girls had all talked about who they wanted most for their one on ones, and it turns out that what they hoped for was exactly matched with what ended up happening. Yay for listening to God's voice!
Am having a really good dinner while i sit here typing this, haven't had couscous in months, so it's nice to be back in that too :) Simple pleasures right?
So has anyone heard that song "From the Inside out" by Hillsong United? Froml the United We Stand album. Soooooo good, good album. totally awesome worship song, have been singing it a lot at church, and managed to get it off Stuart, so have been rocking it at home too. So great to start and finish a long day with some good worship times.
Am also in the middle of a Kiwi experiment. It's going to be great (well at least I hope so!) so will post picutres if i am successful......(yup i know that was vague, I don't know who could be reading this....!
Anyways, time to jet, so look below for some prayer points and I'll post again soon.
Love ya
Hill


Prayer points for praying people
-Outreach decisions are coming again, between the two Southeast Asian places (let me know if you want more details) and so the teams, and the leaders (i.e. me and the other staff) are praying about where to go, and where to get the money to go. Everyone needs $400 by Friday to pay deposits for tickets, and one or two students don't have that yet. So it's going to be an interesting time!
-One on ones and journals and general discipleship wisdom for me as I get to know my three girls better.
-Continued energy and health as the momentum of the schedule picks up and the weather gets colder


LATER TODAY - UPDATE

The experiment completely worked, it was a wonderful amazing success. Pictures coming soon.

So, today, on a lovely Vancouver Sunday I would like to share with you my musical inspiration of the day. I normally don't do blogs like this, but after being touched so deeply, (and laughing til I thought I was going to cry or wet myself) I figured I needed to share this with you.
This is my tribute to Wing. I heart Wing

Wing moved to New Zealand about 10 years ago from HongKong, and after some set backs with a far too rigid and narrow minded CD industry there, she decided to launch out, and put herself into the public light with her own money, and fulfill her obligation to share her god given voice with the world to bring enlightenment and joy and happiness.
My personal favourite would have to be "Wing sings ABBA" Who can beat that Dancing Queen.......
listen to free Wing clips on www.wingmusic.co.nz
Especially for you Nic and Ryan and Wade if you are reading, please listen to Highway to Hell, from the "Wing sings AC/DC" collection. It inspired me......(to run and hide)

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

so i am faced with a bit of a conundrum
have just come back from conference, and i'm pretty sure my flat mate is back from utah, but she isn't home, it's pushing on 1am, and i am thinking i should go to bed soon. however the problem is that jacqui and i share a room, and while she was away i was using her bed, because mine is the top bunk, 6 feet off the ground, with no ladder! the ladder got moved with the painting and has now vanished into a vortex, leaving me sitting on the floor wondering if i should borrow her bed again and risk the weird moment of being woken up at some crazy hour when she comes home or maybe jsut sleepin gon the couch to sort it out tomorrow.
tehehe, the things we wonder about eh
i am excited to do laundry.
i know this sounds sad to most, but any traveller knows what i mean. after one backpack for 10 days and wearing my pajama top on the last leg of our roadtrip today because of a lack of clean clothes, laundry is quickly rising to the top of the pirority list for tomorrow.
The road trip was awesome though, I wouldn't have traded that for any flight no matter how spacious. There were all the predictable problems of 4 day drives with 5 people and geared squeezed into a station wagon, but at the same time, the "getting to know" time was so great, and i really enjoyed it! Thanks Ange and Leigh, Stu and Stefan!
Conference was so great, Pinawa was a beautiful spot to have it and over the week I got a good chance to get to know a lot of the other workers from many of the other bases around canada, including some really great and encouraging kiwis, fijians, samoans and aussies. Had a good dose of south pacific pride, and recovered from the isolationist identity crisis i was having (mostly as a result of jetlag)
anwyays
it's bed time, i'm sure i'll have lot to type later
will post some pics from the road trip, and maybe a video or two if i can work out how lol
love ya
hill

So I am back on the beaten track.
In downtown Winnipeg to be precise.
Things here are great, the conference went really well. It was so good to meet people from so many other bases and get a bit of context from finding out about the work that is going on with other YWAM bases. Also, on a VERY good note was hanging out with the other kiwis and aussies that i got to meet there. was sooooo good to not feel so out numbered, and really swim in a bit of south pacific pride! alsocool was meeting a few of the fijian and samoan workers who really know how to party it up and laugh, A LOT
so yeah all in all it was a good time with a lot of encouraging teaching, socialising and relazing. We went rafting down a big river too and caught a turtle for the kids to play with and also managed to almost get a tan. between lots of cycling and kayaking and rafting i cirtainly did my excercise to attempt to compensate for the ridiculous amount of amazing good food they fed us!!!
it was good fun
anwyays
so we are now resting it up in YWAM Winnipeg for th night, relaxing and chilling out, and hopefully catching up tonight with a couple of the girls from my DTS.
then we are driving slowly back tomorrow to saskatoon, then the next day to calgary and then the day after that to vancouver. i'll have tuesday off to relax and get my room together, good too as jacqui will be back from salt lake city then too and we can organise our room together.
ok Heather and Dave jsut arrived!!!! have to go
love ya
will psot again later

so, conference is going really well, and I am enjoying getting to know a bunch of other YWAMers from all over Canada, as well as a couple of Kiwis, Samoans, Koreans, and just about everyone else from everywhere else. I didn't htink I'd be in much internet contact, but it's currently 1am, and after a pretty intense "woah, i have to write this idea down before i sleep" moment i am now so awake that i figured i would post again since the last one was a sad length of time ago.
It's been great to be back, had great "run and hug" moments with stefan and stuart and dan and some of the other familiar vancouver faces, and am looking forward to a few more when the winnipeg trio make the drive up here to hang out with us. Also,had a really great 5 hour hang out with my mate Dan who (worst timing of all!)flew out from England to spend a week in Vanocuver arriving saturday night, about 8 hours before i was due to leave for conference. so we hung out for 5 of those 8 hours, for once jet lag working in my favour, keeping me cheery and awake till well after 4am when i needed to pack and get ready to leave for the airport at 5!!!!!
My room in Vnacouver is pretty sweet, sharing with another girl from the base, Jacqui, and also sharing the flat with another baser, Pam. So yeah, back in a girls flat, and looking forward to good times ahead.
It's been super weird at conference, though good too, but have had a few moments (like, maybe 15!!!) where i'll be listening to something, freak out and think "woah i shouldn't be listening to that, i'm not staff, i'm only a student" then freak out again when yes I realise I am infact a staff member and will be for the next two years! YIPES
But all things considered, it's been great, i am unjetlaggged (almost) and keeping on keeping on.
love you all loads, email me and tell me good kiwi stories! i'm almost all out of brotown episodes, so need some real life kiwi news soon!!!
will post again next week, most likely with some legendary road trip stories after the mammoth drive home over the better part of three provinces! should anyone choose to check, we are driving from pinawa/winnipeg, manitoba, all the way back to Vancouver, british columbia. yeah baby!

So the day has come! (Sorry this is only for Aucklanders, unless anyone else is really really really keen!)
My buddy Caroline has come back from Canada, and I am going back to Canada,
aaaaannnnddddd, it is Caroline's 22nd birthday.
So...............................in honour of these wonderful
occaisions, we are having farewell/welcomeback/happy birthday drinks,
so we can all hang out, catch up, hug, party, chill out and see each
other, for the first time in ages, or for the last time for a while.
When: Tuesday 15 August 2006, 5pm and onwards (Caroline and I will
hang about, and you can all come and go as you please......)
Where: de Post Belgian pub, Mt Eden Village, opposite Circus circus
Come along for a little while, or the whole night, and bring LOTS of friends :D
Love you all muchly, and you better show up!

For everyone else not in Auckland, who can't make it to drinks, will post again super soon, but in the meantime i'm going to go watch the amazing race!

oh oh oh and good news, I GOT MY VISA LETTER TODAY! CANADA HERE I COME!

So it turns out that I am indeed a material girl in a material world.
Trying to organize this whole “moving to the other side of the world” debacle is turning into a huge headache, an expensive headache and mostly making me want to break things, throw things at travel agents or cry. Or maybe all three at once.
It’s so far taken me 2 website visits, 6 phone calls and 2 visits to work out what my baggage allowance is. Sad but true, it’s only 30 kgs! So my whole little New Zealand life is going to be summed up in one and a half bags (not two bags of equal weight, apparently one must be large and the other small) and the maximum weight allowed is 30 kgs. And call me a material girl if you like, but moving my whole me to Canada in 30 kgs of luggage? Yipes.
I suppose this will make me really strict with myself on the limits of crap I am allowed to bring, as well as very appreciative of every ounce that I do bring, that makes the cut. Sigh
I know I shouldn’t let stuff bug me, but I guess if I am not even able to begin coping with the big stuff, I might as well let the little things drive me crazy in the interim.
Church have planned a going away lunch for me after church next weekend, and this weekend I am roadtripping to Hamilton to pick up my friend Amy and her bf Luuk, so we can hang out for a bit before I go.
I can’t believe how busy this last 3 weeks is getting, and the emotional crusty roller coaster it is becoming. I watch my life happen at a barge pole distance today, shake my head, and weigh up the options of moving to Antarctica. Penguins are good company right Krista?