last week...

Dear friends,

We have had an awesome time since we last updated. We got to go to a Fijian service on Sunday. It was amazing. They spoke in their native tongue, but sung a few songs in English. We have been relaxing and just talking with people. On Wednesday we did a tour in the jungle on canoes. We saw another village. We heard their history, saw beautiful war dances, and an amazing waterfall. Later that afternoon and night there was a forest/grass fire on the hill by our hostel. It got so close to our room we packed our bags and prepared to possibly watch the place burn down, but we started praying. Praying it would stop or there would be rain. God delivered. It was cool because a guy that works here named Joe (we have gotten to know him well and encourage him on his walk with God) said there wasn't rain in the next village not far away. So God is good and prayer is powerful. No rain dances here, just talkin' to God.

We leave tomorrow for our next place for a week and then back to New Zealand.

Prayer Requests:

Safe travel

Open hearts with travelers

finishing this out strong

We love you guys and will see you very soon.

Love,

Rebecca, Frans, Nate, Matt, Jordan, and Natalie

Fiji

YWAM folks,

We are finally here in Fiji. It is so beautiful here. We get to swim in the Ocean and snorkel to see the amazing fish. Everyone is doing great. It is super hot.
We are getting to talk with a lot of people and getting to know the people on staff here at the hostel. On the second day here Rebecca, Nate and I got to pray for a man named Eli. He HAD boils on his leg and the Lord healed him! Praise HIM!
Yesterday we hopped on a boat and visited a village on a different Fijian Island. We met and drank Kava (a Fijian drink) with the locals of the village. The children at the school in town did sang native songs and danced. We also got to see some amazing animals, such as, sting rays, clams, colorful fish and a shark. We are rockin' it here.

Today we did a prayer walk around the hostel/beach just lifting it up in prayer.

Top of the Land of the Long White Cloud

Dear Friends,

With one day left here in New Zealand, we are setting our eyes to Fiji. We hop on a plane early in the AM for beautiful beaches, people, and food. It means outreach is almost over! How crazy! Since leaving Picton, we road on the ferry from the South Island to the North. The ferry was quite the trip trying to not get sick and puke over the side. Here is a great picture of Matt and Rebecca on the ferry with the wind in their face!

We spent the night in a hostel in Wellington and walked around the city. Then we were off for Rotorua. We stopped in Taupo so Matt, Natalie, and I (Jordan) could bungy (or bungee in the USA) jump. Such a trip and so fun! Below is me about to jump, but freaking out.

While we are traveling it is hard to really get our feet wet as they say and get to know people. Each place that we have invested more time into we get to see more fruit. Not saying that there isn't fruit elsewhere, it is just more visible! Our destination for the week was a little surfing town called Raglan. And God was ready for us. We picked up two girl hitchhikers 30 minutes outside of Raglan. These two girls (Keely, from Chicago, and Dani, from the NE USA), live at an eco-retreat called Solscape.

We decided Solscape would be the place we would invest our time. After doing a prayer walk around the town of Raglan and the retreat, we met some amazing people. We got to know three women pretty well. Laura and Sabina from Argentina and Ali from Maine. They are woofers and travelers staying at Solscape. We saw Laura come to know the Lord and get really stoked about it. She is an incredible firecracker of a woman. Ali and Laura might come to our graduation! There is Laura with our team at a beautiful waterfall. We miss her.

While at Solscape, Joanna and Denver met up with us to hangout and chill. It is wonderful to see new friends and old friends!

Now we are in Auckland being WELL cared for by Joanna's parents. They are feeding us meat and milk (which Matt and I adore). We have real beds, pillows, hot showers, free internet, etc. It is amazing how hospitable they are to us. Honestly, words can not describe our thankfulness. We are all doing great!

Prayer Requests:

- safe travel over the ocean to Fiji

- the people we shall meet in Fiji

- the people we met here in NZ

- finishing outreach with a bang

Love,

Natalie, Rebecca, Jordan, Nate, Frans Jan and Matt

Picton, the top of the South

Hello folks,

We are in Picton, staying at the sweetest hostel yet (sequoia lodge)! We are getting near to the end of our time here in New Zealand. Tomorrow we jump on a boat headed for Wellington in the North Island with the ole van Magnum.

Since I wrote last we enjoyed six excellent days in Takaka with Leo (the crazy, cookaholic Frenchman), hiked a four day track and stayed in Nelson for a couple days. We climbed and swam, we didn't shower for eight days straight. We talked to many people about what we were doing.

We met a couple Capernway students from a Bible school here in New Zealand. It was SO great to get to know them a bit. It is funny how you can come across random Christians and feel like family so fast.

This past Monday we all hitchhiked to the start of the Abel Tasman track. That was a trip in itself. It was four days of hiking and then sitting on the beach at night. It was beautiful!

We have met many backpackers recently, and are stoked to keep meeting more.

Prayer Requests:

- to keep growing and changing, becoming more like Him

- staying unified in the Lord

- bringing Him glory in ALL we do

- loving others

- to live life well together

Love,

Natalie, Rebecca, Matt, Nate, Jordan and Frans Jan

peace, love, and Jesus

Dear YWAM Oxford family,

We have finally arrived to Takaka. It is the hippie hang out of New Zealand. We left Queenstown on Sunday after church and headed for Franz Josef. When we were about an hour and a half away we were waved down and told the road was flushed away by enormous amounts of flooding. As we were wondering where on Earth we would stay for the night and praying about somewhere free, we were told to go to the local Marae. They opened up there building for us that night and fed us dinner! It was an incredible blessing for our team and a few others too. We played a few games and slept on cushiony mattresses fit for a queen.

The next day we picked up Leonard from Franz Josef and set our eyes for Takaka. We are now staying at a campsite called Hang Dog, with Leo as our chef. We didn't realize how bad of cooks we all were until Leo showed up. Seriously, we have no idea (or maybe it's just me) what we will do when we leave him in five days. At the campsite, we are loving the chill atmosphere and people. They have a slackline set up that is more like a huge catapult. I got launched off it and beaten by the webbing. Matt is loving it though. He is showing his expertise (Kent you would be so proud of your dear friend).

We are having some good talks with people. With that said...

Prayer Requests:

- more in-depth conversations

- showing Christ in all we do

- divine appointments

We are loving the updates guys, keep them coming! We are praying for you all! Earthcare and Crossroads, you all just flipping rock! Many blessings.

Love,

The team who is too cool to need a sweet name (NZ/Fiji)

Welcome to 2010!

Since the last update, we have been quite busy!

We are staying at a hostel for free because we help them clean the rooms for new guests. It has been such a blessing, for them and us. They only have two guys on staff to clean 10 or more rooms every day, and around this time of year in Queenstown every place is packed!

Each day begins with worship and a devotional, then we head off to clean. The guys that run the hostel are so thankful for us, so it is very rewarding.

To sum up the week we have:

-witnessed snow in the summer.

-watched movies, enjoying each others company.

-gotten a great letter from our two wonderful roomies (Rob and Joey) from the first hostel here in town. *We stopped by the church here to find a note from them and 4 plastic bread closures (Natalie about died of happiness)...basically, it made our day!

-gotten to praise God that Natalie led a girl named Leah to Christ and she now has a backpacker Bible.

-shared with many others how cool God is and what we are doing and why.

-climbed some boulders (my favorite part).

-celebrated New Years in the second country to hit midnight on Earth (first are the Christmas Islands).

-helped at a picnic in Wanaka, again just hanging out and talking to people from all over the world.

life here in New Zealand is going well. It has been quite the trip so far, learning how to work with our differences and what it looks like to be ourselves and enjoy God.

Prayer Requests:

-that we would step out in our giftings

-be bolder

-meet more people, and see more come to know Jesus

-a travel buddy (someone we meet that will travel with us for a time)

-team unity

Hope our dearest friends in India and Thailand are doing well. We freaking love AND miss you all HEAPS!

Queenstown

My dear backpacking friends (who we miss heaps),

It has been an incredible week! After a few days off the never-ending track, we are in Queenstown and let's just say God is SO faith-FULL. Natalie is hearing Him say something and next thing we know God is rocking us. We are staying in a hostel in the middle of town where so many people our age are. It was so weird to hear people partying until 4am on Christmas Eve, when I myself am used to hanging out with my parents (aka going to bed at 11pm). We are sharing a dorm room with a couple named Rob and Joanne (Joey). They are awesome. They played Uno and Apples to Apples with us on Christmas.

So we woke up on Christmas, opened presents, drank coffee, and enjoyed one another's company. That afternoon we were going to walk around and maybe get a bite to eat, but Natalie felt she should go across the street to a Church called On the Rock. As she waved us down we found that the church was expecting us and had made lunch for us! I had written them an e-mail to ask if they needed help with anything on Christmas, but they responded saying they weren't going to do anything. Surprise, free lunch! We talked with them for awhile, but they all needed to leave to do family things and ended up leaving us a key to the church. They have a espresso machine (Seth it is so nice), which they said we could use and invite others to. There is also free wifi, which I am finding is a rarity. The craziest part is that they also have a massage table and supplies (Natalie was freaking out). We can use everything! God is crazy. We were pumped and decided to ask the Lord if we should stay in Queenstown longer and skip Wanaka. We felt we should stay, so here we are. We are going to get a couple rooms at Reavers (THANK YOU SHERPA FOR THE TIP!), and live it up!

The team is bonding well. We are learning to live intentional, while being ourselves.

Prayer Requests: Continuously seeking God, and loving each other.