Easter Down Under...

At the prompting of one of students, I decided on a whim to do Lent (without really considering the ramifications). Which thing do you think I choose to give up? You guessed it: sweets: candy, desserts, sugar(ish)... pretty much all of it (admittedly I may have indulged once or twice). Now, If you know me, you understand my love for anything that contains copious amounts of sugar. I wish I could say that I could report back some life changing nugget of awesome-ness from Lent but I can't. Because I HATED IT. I was angry and resentful for 50% of the time! I JUST wanted sweets ALLL the time. And it seemed like they were EVERYWHERE. (You KNOW what I am saying!) BUT I will say it is a part of this Easter experience, which I am about to tell. :)

I was surprised that Easter is not that big a deal in NZ but this has been one of the most spiritually significant ones in my life. All the bunnies, eggs, and family traditions were absent this year... and it was so good. My church puts on an art show for Good Friday (instead of a service) so along with 12 others, we made some sort of artistic thingy to go in. Click for background story here (ya know you wanna ;) It really centered me on Jesus this Easter, being semi-"forced" to take serious time to comtemplate the scriptures leading up to Jesus' death. The teens and I watched to Gospel of John this past term and it has brought the story of Jesus to LIFE, too. My head's been buzzing with Jesus. Haha. Seeing the scriptures acted out and seeing the faces of the disciples and "Jesus" (Desmonde from LOST haha), living out the stories, it reminded me, like, woah, this was real. They lived just like we did. Confused yet dedicated and followed after Jesus with all they had...I'm rambling, but it has impacted me. (Watch it on youtube" Gospel of John). OVERWHELMED by the awesomeness of Jesus.

Spent Easter with my flatmates and friends :-) It was COLD but we still swam, you gotta!
(L to R: Me, Kayla, Mel, Becca)

What did I do on Easter? Went to church in the morning, saw all my church family, then hung out with my friends/flatmates at her parent's home near the Coromandel (beautiful place out in the bush on NZ, around  2 hours North of Auckland). We went swimming, even though it was cold!, and played indoor soccer (which I am starting to LOVE), I got to talk each of my family at the Easter dinner table which was AWESOME! 

Of course! :-) 

Check that off the to-do while in NZ list! (On our way to the "bach" aka cottage)
L & P is the "World Famous in New Zealand" pop/"fizzy drink".... its YUM 

Trying to figure out what setting to use to caption an action pic in dark lighting, haha.