bula!

Bula!!

That is the Fijian greeting (pronounced boo-lah). Wow, we have been here for almost a week and soon we will be back to Oxford, New Zealand. I am always amazed at how fast time whips by.
This past week has been incredible. It is super hot, but I am getting tan for Erin's (my best friend) wedding. Ha. We are staying at a resort hostel. A place right on the beach. We have been snorkeling and seeing the most incredible colored fish. Some of my teammates saw a shark and stingray. I just enjoyed finding amazing seashells.
Another cool thing this week was that I got to pray for an employee of our resort to be healed of boils, and he was healed!! Amen!
The people of Fiji are beautiful. I don't know how a whole country of people can all sing amazing but they can.
**Sorry about the horrible writing this week. I don't have much time online.
We went to a Fijian service this morning. The whole service is done in Fijian, but I sat by a woman named Tiki and she told me what was going on.
We are getting to know the staff well, which is so great! They are wonderful!
We also went to a village on another Island and see the school and kids. The Fijians like to drink something called Kava. Google it! Interesting stuff, but mainly tastes like dirt. It makes your tongue go numb.
Yep, seeing cool stuff, getting cultured, and enjoying to see God be God.
Love you all lots!
Mom, see YOU in 3 weeks!

-Jordan

I sound like the grape lady? oh no...

It has gotten to the point where I honestly cannot remember where I slept last night. This week was a really fun week here in New Zealand. It started out with a 3 hour long Ferry ride from the South Island (Picton) to Wellington in the North. We drove our van onto the ship and tried not to get sick. It was crazy walking down the halls of the ship and trying to walk in a straight line.

The next big thing I did was bungee jump in Taupo. Here is a video for your viewing pleasure.

Dad, just so you know your birthday present is a bungee jump in Dallas, Texas. 7 stories...high!

The best part of the week has to be meeting new friends! We picked up two hitchhikers on our way to Raglan (a surfing community). They ended up being two girls from the USA working at a hostel/campground. They talked us into staying. It is called Solscape and is an eco-retreat. They are super environmentally friendly. We met Laura (from Argentina), Ali (from Maine), Sabina (from Argentina), and Molene (from Sweden). They are woofers. Woofers volunteer to work on organic farms for free accommodation. check out this website for more: http://www.wwoof.org/

They were so excited to be with us. Laura decided she wanted to know more about Jesus and accept Him as her Saviour. She is a firecracker. She might come to our graduation in Feb...hopefully! We were very sad to leave them, but today we had to come to Auckland. We are staying with Joanna and her family. She works at the base and offered her house to us. We get a bed, shower, tv, internet, meat, clean clothes and pillows. Those are luxuries folks!

Traveling like we are has taught me so much. People can live with just a pack! I have decided that wherever I live I will build an outdoor shower and let people use it for free. Oh showers! You have no idea how glorious things are until they are gone. Showers are not essential, good food is not essential, coffee, a pillow...you name it. Life is much more simple and things are put into perspective.

I had a wonderful chat tonight with Erin. She is a blessing, as are all my friends and my family. I miss you all. I hope you guys really do know how much I love you.

I must sign off for now so we can have worship and intercession in our room together. May you realize the goodness of life, each step of the way, everyday. Live life well with the others around you.

I love milk.

the start of the Abel Tasman track

a "keep tahoe blue" sticker in the bathroom at hangdog

climbing the 5.9 route

tents in hangdog

It has been a long time since my last update, and much has happened. My team and I stayed at the hippie campsite for five or six days. It was so awesome to be a part of the climbing community for so long. It was very chill. For you climbers out there I lead climbed a 5.9, which is something you don't tell your mom...whoops. It was up there with top 5 scariest things I have ever done. The picture above is me on it, but not too high up...yet.

We headed out (aka hitchhiked) on Monday for the Abel Tasman track. It was 32 miles, 4 days, and heaps of beautiful beaches. So far I have hiked over 72 miles (from Stillwater to Tulsa, and then some). I am not sure if that is a brag or not because I wouldn't call hiking my favorite thing to do at all. It is funny when you hike like that the things you think about or the songs you sing in your head. Coldplay's Swallowed by the Sea was what I was singing each day. I also thought a ton about my friends, food, and home.

I have good news to announce. After a morning on the beach of praying and talking with God about what I shall be doing next. He told me to stay in Tulsa indefinitely. So for a season I will be back in T-town. Rea rejoiced when I told her this because I will not be missing her wedding. Whew. Wouldn't miss that for the World.

After getting off the track, we stayed in Nelson. Cool city. I realize more each day how truly small the world is. People are too connected to ever feel alone. Just pray.

Now we are in Picton (the top of the South Island), and we get on a ferry tomorrow with our van and land on the North Island tomorrow night in Wellington. We are staying in a really great hostel. The 25th we fly out of here for Fiji. Time really does go fast.

I'm learning a ton, growing heaps, and seeing just how BIG God really is.

Not sure when I will get to update again. Love you all a lotta.

hang dog

Well friends, we have left Queenstown and have finally arrived in a place called Takaka. It is hippie central for New Zealand and possibly the world. I have never seen so many dreads and people with out shoes. We were in the grocery store and most people were not wearing shoes. Our drive here took 3 days. We were almost to Franz Josef glacier when we had to stop because of enormous amounts of flooding. It was on the news here we were told. So we were wondering where we would stay because the last place was booked out. Luckily, we got the opportunity to stay at a Marae (click to find out what that is). They fed us dinner and we played games. Good times...

Pause from the update: This is a quick update because it costs $6 to even be able to do this. Which reminds me, there are a few things that I do not appreciate about NZ. The lack of good coffee and the expensive/bad internet! AND every guy, it seems, has a mullet and wears stubbies. Stubbies are basically really short shorts, or rugby shorts.

Things I do appreciate: cops do not have guns, yet they wear bulletproof vests. The colors/colours here are more brilliant then any place I have ever seen (blues are brighter, greens, oh man!). They play rugby, which I have decided makes football look like a sport for girls. No offense, but it is true! Oh and you can meet people from all over the world. Here is a small list of countries: Brazil, Switzerland, England, Germany, Nederlands, Canada, USA, Israel, Spain, Czech Republic, and Australia (and those are just what I can remember).

Back to the update...

We are now staying at a hippie camp called Hang Dog. Seriously, you all would love this! I will have to take pictures, but imagine the hippie camp at Yosemite (everyone at the camp climbs, it is my heaven) and you have where I am. Everyone either has a tent or is sleeping in their vans. They all just got back from the hippie gathering. I really can't think of how to describe this place better, so pics to come soon.

*now to update our teams blog!

Miss everyone. Can't wait to get back to the States for some GOOD coffee, free internet (I will be living at the Coffee Shop on Cherry Street or Panera), cheap food (everything is so darn expensive here), Mexican (oh queso, chips and salsa, how I love thee), and driving on the RIGHT side of the road (right in more ways than one).

Hope everyone had a great New Years!

for a more updated update of what is going on in the crazy country called New Zealand please see our team's blog:

http://nzbackpackers2009.blogspot.com/

thank you,

Jordan

Pictures of our adventure so far...

Climbing Mountains

The team staying for free at someone's place

I'm alive (barely)...

I just got done hiking 41.6 miles of craziness. Not a lot to update, but I wanted to shout out to my parents that I am good to go. Love you all, if I don't talk to you before Christmas...well, Merry Christmas. More to update later. Life is good. My team is awesome.

Peace.