HAPPY EASTER - and Grandparents!!!

Happy Easter and may we all grow in our revelation of what really took place when Jesus died on that cross and then was raised back to life - - - it blows my mind! THANK YOU JESUS, FOR THAT HUGE SACRIFICE!!!! It's been such a busy week and we just barely got everything ready in time for Rich's parents' arrival today. It sure accelerated the final stages and clean-up of our moving in and I can now say - very tired but very happy: we've got everything in its place and a place for everything!!!! Well, just about everything (most of our books are still in boxes and will be until we can buy a book shelf) Can't tell you what a relief that is for me!!! When Rich or the kids ask me where this or that is, I actually know it! And hopefull they'll soon know it, too, so they won't need to ask any more. WHEW!!! It is wonderful having Rich's parents here!!! We sure miss not having grandparents around most of the time! It was kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time having to prepare Kylie for their visit. She does not know them at all (she was a baby when we saw them 3 years ago), neither does she understand the concept of grandparents or who they are. "Why are they coming to stay at our house?" "Are they going to like me?" She was so relieved when I told her that they're going to love her and she squealed with delight. Amazing that she would even wonder about that... must be the influence of those teenagers in the house... :) I guess for her they were strangers - but that's going to change now! What I am really grateful about is that the older children do have some relationship with them! Of course it is not as close as if we lived close by, but there are many good memories of times spent together over the years. Makes me all the more glad that we went out of our way (and financial possbilities) to visit them every 3 years or so. The kind of investment that is priceless!!! Should be a fun couple of weeks with them - hopefully creating many more happy memories!

NEW BLOG

I have created a new blog, since I can't figure out the "issues" I have with this one. See ya on www.ibetts.blogspot.com

Our hero is back!

Jeremie is back from Maadi Cup 2007! Although we're all proud of him (their team came 16th), Kylie is absolutely enraptured with her hero - her big brother! She insisted that he sit next to her for lunch and then she kept looking at him with the most incredible expressions on her face - pure admiration and melting away in his presence... The rest of us had to pull ourselves together really hard not to blurt out laughing. It is too cute and a precious memory without a photo! She kept telling him with her most "cooing" voice: "I like you! I like you sooooo much!!!", all the while turning her eyes as to melt any heart. Those are the moments you just want to hold on - but can't. In a few days she'll be back to telling him how annoying he is... :)

Favorite sayings of our 3-year-old

"I'll do it!" (getting independent and making sure everybody knows that) "What about me?" (making sure she's not forgotten in the busy family) "Just do it!" (When she wants us to do something that we are hesitant about or not wanting to do)

B-Final Tomorrow

Jeremie's rowing team of 4 has qualified for the B-final, which will be happening tomorrow at 1:05p.m. and will be broadcast live on Sky-TV! Since we don't have Sky, we'll load up the car again - Nathalie will come again, too, and of course, Kylie, and we'll head to Lake Karapiro one last time for Jeremie's LAST rowing event - at least for this season!!! He said he didn't want to do rowing again in the next season - we'll see what he'll say after a few weeks of having a life again :) Anyway, we're really proud of him making it into the B-final! Even if they were to come last, they would be 16th out of all the schools in New Zealand!

This is no scaredy-cat

Kylie has just spent the better part of the last 1/2 hour outside in the back-yard - by herself - in the pitchdark (no, it's not bed-time yet, since she took a nap in the car)- in rainy-stormy weather-conditions. She was recently given a very nice rain-coat; with that and her gum-boots, she was well equipped for facing the elements - and giving our dog some attention/affection. I'm amazed at how fearless she is - darkness? rain? storm? alone? - no worries for Kylie. She had a great time! The downside of this is that she tends to take off by herself when we're in public places, and I have to chase her down. I'm working on training her to always stay close to me - at least when we're in public.

New Zealand Flax

I've just come from a visit to Leilani's school "Art Camp". She got to learn quite a few cool, new artsy-type things - New Zealand schools are really good when it comes to that! (far better than maths and spelling...) They learned how to weave the very typical "New Zealand Flax". And taught me, too! I love learning new cultural crafts - what fun! Here is a photo from my first tries. When the flax dries, it becomes brownish and makes a nice decoration. Looking forward to that!

Help anyone?

I'm sorry that my entries don't have any paragraphs any more, which makes them difficult to read. Anybody out there that can help me fix this problem? I can't figure it out...

AON Maadi Cup

The long-awaited, much prepared for national school rowing championship has started! Today, at 7:30am, Jeremie was on one of the first races, competing with rowers from more than 100 schools in New Zealand. The girls and I got up real early. Leilani was brought to friends who could later take her to school (she'll be on an Art Camp all week), Kylie was taken straight from her bed to the carseat, and off we went - at 6:00am. Nathalie took off school for the day, since she really wanted to see Jeremie race - at least once! I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the races! Rowing is a pretty graceful sport - although VERY competitive! Jeremie's teams did fine, although I'm not sure they're gonna win a gold medal, but that's fine with me :)! Here are some photos of the day. The first one was taken right after the start of the 2km race (couldn't take photos at the end, because it was too far). The second and third were after a race during debrief. You can see Jeremie with his 3 team-mates, his coach and their coxen, a light girl directing the boat, since they are rowing backwards. They are completely wiped out after every race, breathing heavily, even five minutes after the end. We brought Jeremie his favorite food in between races: some left-over Tahitian "Poisson Cru" (raw fish salad). Fish is on sale at the moment, and so I made some yesterday (very rare occurence) Anything to cheer the boy up :) I'll be back there on Wednesday for the next race and we'll see if he makes it into any finals later on in the week.

Some photos of our new home, the view and Kylie at our picnic yesterday The water you can see from our house is the view on the Bay (we live in the "Bay of Plenty"). There is a 30m steep bank from our property down to the water - hence the fence :)

Happiest Person on Earth

My life is far from perfect in every respect - and yet - today, I felt like I was the happiest person on planet earth. For the first time in a couple of weeks, I took a break from running around, unpacking, shopping and cleaning. I took the time to take Kylie and Toffee for a walk. WOW! I am SOOOO blessed!!! It was a BEAUTIFUL day. The park that is close to our house borders on the water and I was just blown away by the beauty of God's creation - once again! The stillness of the water, the quietness of the park, interrupted only by singing birds. Toffee (our dog) running around happy as can be and chasing sea gulls in the water, Kylie enjoying herself thoroughly. She asked me to go back home and get a picnic to eat at the park, which we did. It was so much fun! I was pondering just how blessed I am: Besides having God in my life and a wonderful husband (though absent at the moment), how many women have the privilege of staying home with their small children? I couldn't bear the thought of dropping Kylie off at some daycare every day. I love taking care of her and walking with her on the journey of discovery of LIFE! I get to teach her German and French, which she will need in her future life. She's my little disciple, along with the 3 other precious treasures the Lord has entrusted into my/our care. I may not have many earthly goods but I couldn't be happier if I did! My needs are met - and more. Our new house is feeling more like home every day. The view is just stunning! What a blessing!!! Nature itself ministers to my soul - so much! I see and feel God all through it! THANK YOU, GOD!!!

Around dinner time

We've had some interesting "conversations" before and around dinner the last few nights: 1. Found out that Kylie will maybe? become a vegetarian... It hit her for the first time that a precious chicken actually had to die so that we could eat some of it for dinner. Being the animal-loving and very deep-feeling person she is, this dinner prep ended up being quite a scene - with intense, heart-broken, traumatised-type of sobbing for at least 10 minutes! First when the chicken was cut up and then a whole new wave of grief and shock hit her when it was tossed into the frying pan. To our amusement, though, when the chicken pieces were served with lots of vegetables, guess what she picked out first to eat? The chicken - somehow she didn't get the connection... hmmm 2. Conversation between Nathalie and Jeremie: Nathalie: "So, are you gonna become a missionary, Jeremie?" Jeremie: "Don't know. Don't think so. Nathalie: "Why not? Jeremie: "I just prefer a more settled life and not moving around so much." Nathalie: "When I was your age I didn't want to become a missionary either. I wanted to live in America and make lots of money. But that's changed now." Jeremie: "Hmmmm." 3. Tonight's conversation started with the remark (by Nathalie) that we've all put on weight since we came to New Zealand (arrgh - she's right, too!). She remembered how she used to be so very skinny in Tahiti - probably because there just wasn't that much food available in our house(there was always enough). She realized how she doesn't like the materialsm in the Western World and that she was happy in Tahiti, not having very much and that she wants to raise her kids in a non-western/not-so-materialistic country. I threw in that I had felt that way too before I had kids and really did prefer raising them in a less wealthy context. I'd just been thinking today about how blessed we are in New Zealand. I can go to the library with Kylie and pick out 20 books, CDs and DVDs, all for free and keep them for 6 weeks! In Tahiti a trip to the library was a special treat because it was a 1-hour drive from our house. The kids were allowed to choose only 3 books, that's it. And they could keep them for max. 2 weeks. I find myself thinking about the orphans in Africa very often, and how I could bless them when the Lord releases me to go there for a visit. When I learn new recipes at Playcentre for fun things like playdough, goop and bubble liquid etc. I think of how much those things would bless the orphans. But how they would probably rather use the money spent on those things just for food... for survival. Interesting food for thought these days - - - Rich left for Fiji yesterday early morning. He'll be gone for 2 weeks and we'll miss him!

White House on a Hill

We almost made it through our first week at the new house! OOUFF!!! It was/is VERY strenous - both physically and emotionally this time - - - especially knowing that there is no guarantee that we will be able to live here for a long time. Is it that I'm getting older (had my birthday this week, too) or the strain of moving is accumulating and really getting to me...??? Don't know. Maybe both... When we were praying about our housing situation with our children a while ago, Nathalie "saw" a white house on a hill. This is exactly where we've now ended up.(photos to follow when I can find the cord from the camera to the computer) Anybody know what I'm talking about? - not finding things half the time? I can't wait to get organized and finally have a place for everything and everything in its place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're gonna get there, little by little. One thing about moving is that in every new house you need things you don't have and you have things you don't need anymore/can't fit... So I've been doing a bit of shopping this week in pursuit of some colour coordination and organization. We have been blessed in amazing ways - let me tell you: Before our move, we had been trying to find a double bed for Leilani and Kylie. They had been sleeping on bunk beds but Leilani really doesn't like sleeping on top and Kylie can't cuz it would be too dangerous. Since Leilani doesn't mind sleeping in the same bed with Kylie, we were on the look-out for a double-bed for the two of them. I really wanted to have this bed on the day we moved in, in order to avoid having to assemble the bunk beds just to take them down again later. In the morning of our move, when Rich went to our former landlords to pick up our stuff from their garage (where they had kindly agreed to store it for the last 3 months), they came out and asked if we couldn't use a double-bed. They had one they didn't want anymore and wanted to give it to us for free! Now isn't that amazing?! I was so blessed!!! And it's good quality too! The week before the move I had been looking around in every possible store in Tauranga for a new sheet/duvet cover set for Rich's and my bedroom, since the colours we had clashed with the colours of the new bedroom. I didn't find anything I liked that was affordable at the same time. Well - this week, a couple of the stores decided to put their bedding stuff on sale - like 40-50% - and I found what I liked AND could afford. I was so blessed! I had mentioned about Rich picking up a new/used dining table set. That's another story - we had felt that it was time to upgrade to a table that could seat more than just our family - since we love having guests. There again we'd looked around all over and the auction we ended up winning was a fantastic deal - beautiful and exceptional price! Yes, we are blessed - there is more I could say, but it'll have to wait for another time - I'm tiiiireed.

Coming up silence

Now that you've had a good dose of posts - and even photos! - you probably won't hear from me for a few days - until internet gets set up in our new home.

Rambling

Since I didn't have anything better to do on a Friday night - - - after all, we're just moving again tomorrow - - - I put together some family photos from the past year. Enjoy! Jeremie just got back from a day of rowing championships - getting up before 4am (he's wasted and in bed), Nathalie is babysitting for friends, Rich and Leilani went for a 4 hour drive (round-trip) to pick up a used dining table and 8 chairs. We bought it last night on trademe, the New Zealand version of ebay. And Kylie's sleeping- yeah! I better get to bed, too. Got to get up with Jeremie at 4:45am tomorrow for another day of rowing and a few other fun activities (for me)... :)

Random Reflections As we come to the end of our 4-month journey into our new home, I am reflecting on what I've experienced and learned: * THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY (and no need to panic - ever!) - I learned this from Darlene Cunningham during our "Leadership Training School" in Tonga under very challenging circumstances * Life is really enjoyable if you concentrate on the positive sides of ANY circumstance! * There is ALWAYS something positive you can find - no matter what else goes wrong * It is possible to enjoy the journey and not just the destination! * Attitude makes all the difference! * It's okay not to understand God - he's God after all * It's okay not to be able to answer all the questions * If Mom is happy, the kids are, too! * My back isn't made for living in the car * How to buy a house in New Zealand (at least theoretically) * It is possible to pull off a nice family-Christmas with guests in less than a week. * Never leave your wallet in the glove compartment of your locked car when you go fishing (actually Rich's lesson) * ALWAYS back up the information on your computer * I could be happy living anywhere - in the middle of the city, the country, suburbia, surrounded by houses * I really enjoy close neighbours and building relationships with them * It's not bad living in a small house - there's less house-work to be done! * Changing your phone numbers (and memorizing them) on a regular basis is good brain training and keeps ya young :)

Staying at home today Yeah! I get to stay home most of today and I am so excited! Since we moved into our 2nd temporary housing (almost 6 weeks ago), life has been such that I have hardly spent any time at the house, except early morning and nights. And for this home-buddy, this has been a challenge. Right now I should be driving Jeremie to his rowing practice (getting up at 5:00am just about every day), but he's come down with a cold and I sent him back to bed. He's got the two main rowing competitions www.schoolrowing.org.nz of the year coming up. The first one starts the day after tomorrow - the next one in ten days. The intensity of their preparation just blows me away. As much as we think that it has been good for Jeremie (and he is doing really well), we all can't wait for the season to be over. The days - and week-ends - have been very long because of it and it has really limited our social life to bare bones. If Jeremie continues in the next season, he will at least have his driver's licence and this will be a HUGE relief (to us!!!). I've got to gear up for our upcoming move on Saturday. Pack up once again and clean the whole house - NOT my favorite occupation - but I've got to admit that I am VERY EXCITED to finally get "settled" again - who knows for how long...

My little PEARL Kylie is quite a witty, funny little 3-year-old. She keeps amusing us whith her comments and ideas. A few days ago, she decided that her name was not Kylie anymore but "Pearl" - out of the blue - no idea where she got that from... To my knowledge she has never heard the name Pearl before. And pearls are definitely not part of our everyday family conversations. (Although both Nathalie and I each own a tahitian pearl - gifts we got from Tahiti!) Already months ago, she started giving funky names to her stuffed animals. A very creative mind indeed :)! Pearl - a very appropriate name she gave herself - our precious princess! Friday is her favorite day of the week. That's the day we go to Playcenter

http://www.playcentre.org.nz/playcentreDetail.php?id=134&assocID=35.

Today, she made pink playdough with rum flavour (choice of one of the Moms) and later helped bake spaghetti/cheese scones for morning tea (or snack). Besides swinging on the swing which is a favorite any day, she got to watch big, colourful frozen balls of ice melt in the sun - with the best part at the end when she was allowed to hammer the rest of them into small pieces!

Other favorites are dress-up, water-play and painting - especially finger-paint where she REALLY gets into it and usually ends up very messy.

Vive le playcenter!!!

F E A S T I N G Yesterday was Rich's and my 19th wedding anniversary - - - WOW! It was funny - the night before we were talking about it and I was just about to say, "It seems like it was yesterday", when Rich said, "It all seems like a big blurr." We had a good laugh at our different ways of remembering our special day! I think it's probably a pretty typical male/female difference :) Besides making a nice dinner and giving me some beautiful flowers, he is blessing me with the most wonderful gift this week: A prayer-retreat at the House of Prayer! Since the hours of continuous prayer were upped to 8 per day, it has become possible for us to make a way where I can spend 3-4 hours before the Lord every day this week. I can't tell you HOW MUCH this means to me!!! I am getting unraveled/melting away in his sweet, tender presence. Just Him, my Bible and me - undisturbed!!! - in an atmosphere of worship. It is the best thing EVER!!! The last season of my life where I could have this kind of deep and loooong communion with my lover Jesus was before I got married - it's been a looooooooong time! I soooooo long for Him - - - am soooooo hungry for him - - - sooooo desperate just to BE with him!!! BE - not do! It is just amazingly WONDERFUL - because HE IS!!! He is ravishing me with his beauty, washing over me with his presence. I could go on and on. Wish this could last more than a week! The phrase that Jesus said to Martha comes to mind: "...Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42) For the last 19 years I've been mostly a Martha. Sitting at Jesus' feet and just BEING with him, LISTENING to him without any agenda or time restraint, was a rare occasion in the midst of the busy-ness of raising a family on the mission-field amidst constant change and with tremendous pressures and stresses. Yes, I tried to carve out half an hour or an hour whenever I could, but I was just scratching the surface of communion with him. I'm sure this is the case for the majority of us mothers - - - and that's ok. Our wiping noses, changing diapers and cleaning the toilet, or being taxi for our kids etc are all a beautiful service to him and very worthwhile. BUT - oh - do I ever enjoy this special time with him!!! He is showing me so many things, ministering his amazing love and comfort. I better go now and get breakfast ready for the troops before leaving the house for the day. "My soul will be SATISFIED as with the richest of foods, with singing lips my mouth will praise you. I STAY CLOSE TO YOU; your right hand upholds me." from Ps.63

Highlight of the day Although I must say that church was pretty cool this morning (I actually got to stay in the service instead of doing childrens ministry), the highlight of my day was - - - GUESS ??? Well??? Catching my first waves EVER on a buggy board this afternoon! It was soooooooo much fun! I can't believe I've waited this long for this experience! Somebody looked at me like I was crazy when I told her this week that I have only gone into the ocean ONCE in the two years that we've lived here. "Why did you come to New Zealand if you don't like swimming in the ocean?", she said. Why we came to New Zealand is a whole story in itself. One thing is for sure: it was NOT for the waves and the beach - although they are a fun family activity on a beautiful summer day like today! We got together with two families from Germany that are here at the moment. I even got to hold hands with Nathalie one time as we "rode" a wave right next to each other - mother/daughter bonding at a whole new level :) YAY!

A bit more about our new House The best thing about our new house is that Nathalie's and Jeremie's stops for school-bus are in walking distance!!! Leilani will still have to be driven to and from school until the end of the year, but that'll only be 10min. max one way. There's even a government-run kindi (pre-school) in walking distance for Kylie that I've heard good things about and a park close by! It is an older home with a bit of character and big enough for our family. Leilani and Kylie will still have to share rooms (to Leilani's dismay...), but they'll be fine. A great plus is that it has almost new carpets which is great for our allergy prone family and tiles in the kitchen/dining area - just what we need for lots of playdough and painting done by our little princess! It has a wood-burner for the winter PLUS a winter's worth of fire wood!!! Three other great things about it are the nice little garden, the view - across the bay - photos to follow - and the fact that they accepted our dog Toffee to come along (outside only)! We had already been prepared to give her away, since dogs are not allowed in 90% of rentals and we're so happy that they'll give her a try. She's the best dog you could wish for - quiet, doesn't bark much, doesn't destroy or dig anything up. We'll have to sell our couch set since the colours don't match at all and get another (used) one - plus a few other things. Overall we are very grateful and excited about moving in soon and sooooo happy that we can FINALLY stop looking for homes!!! THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH IF YOU HAVE BEEN PRAYING FOR US!!!!

Found a new rental home!!! Today, we found our new home. Actually, I found it last week, but it was snatched away from me/us. Here's the story: I had an appointment to look at it last Thursday at 12h30pm. I had a "play date" for Kylie with Julia, one of her new friends from the camp at Orama. When I got there I found out that it was her Mom's birthday. So I offered to take care of Julia for a couple of hours while her Mom went out to lunch with some friends. I pushed the appointment to look at the house to 3:00pm. When I got there, a man ran out of his car into the house, just as I was going in and said to the owner (very fervently, I must add) "I'm taking the house!" (He had just looked at the house before I had arrived and called his wife from the car.) He kind of apologized for his behaviour saying that the same thing had happened to him a few times... I had a quick look through anyway and figured that it just wasn't meant to be, although it looked like it could work for us. The day before yesterday, I was driving in town and was just about cut off by a car. As I yielded, the driver looked over to me to thank me for yielding and recognized me. He then followed me to the parking lot of the supermarket where I was heading so he could talk to me. He was the same man who had taken the house last week. I guess his wife didn't like the decor of the house and so they didn't want it anymore. He let me know that it was available again... Now isn't that amazing?! We signed the contract today and will move in in 2 weeks. HORRAY!!! We are very excited that we will soon be able to settle again

Full life It's been another long silence on this blog - - - life has been very busy with hardly any time at all on the computer and internet. Kylie and I pretty much spent most of last week in the car, driving the kids to and from school, sports, youth group etc. - and visiting with friends in town in the in-between times. It started with taking Jeremie to rowing practice just after 5:00am, coming back home an hour later, making breakfast, getting the girls to school, staying in town until Leilani had to be picked up at 2:30om, Nathalie at 3:30pm and Jeremie around 4:45pm (after another rowing practice after school - are they going to the Olympics or what?!). With traffic, I got home about 6:00pm, just in time to do the breakfast dishes, cook dinner, do laundry, take the dog for a walk, get Kylie to bed etc etc etc. It was EXHAUSTING and I was so glad when Rich came back from Fiji on Sunday to help with the driving. I begged him to take care of Kylie two mornings this week so that I could go to the prayer room http://thop.co.nz/ This has been absolutely WONDERFUL!!!! What a blessing to SOAK in the presence of God and spend a few uninterrupted hours with him!!!! I just love him and am THRILLED when I get time just to BE WITH HIM!!! Love it - love it - love it!!!!!!!!! It has become clear to us that it won't be possible for us to buy a house at this time. So we've been spending a lot of time looking for a long-term rental. This hasn't been easy. There is a shortage of rentals in Tauranga and when a good one comes up, there are many who want it and it gets snatched away right away. We can't keep living for much longer where we are right now. The house is for sale and we regularly have to show it (spotless, of course). It is just too far out and too much driving. We are confident that something will open up VERY SOON!!!

Doing well Just wanted to thank you for your prayers!!! We really feel them!!! After a couple of days of discouragement and stress, we are now happily "settled" in our new home. Our hearts are doing tremendously well. We have complete PEACE about our situation, even though we don't understand and don't have a solution. The only reason we pursued the purchase of the home was because we felt God telling us to do it. Now that it hasn't worked out, we can relax and know that we have done our part and obeyed. The rest is up to him - his responsibility! Our hearts were never set on that house anyways. All we wanted to do was follow what we thought was His leading. The cry of our hearts remains - that God would provide a STABLE home for our family - could be a long-term rental OR a home that we buy. Thank you for your continued prayers! School is starting in a couple of days and Rich will leave for Fiji this week-end.

Found a temporary home! Yeah! We found a home we can move into today!!! It is small and quite far away from all the places we need to go to, but it will do for a little while. It is for sale and only available short term. The good thing is that it is furnished and we will be able to bring our dog, Toffee, who has stayed with the owners of our former rental home. This is exceptional for ANY rental!We all missed her during the last 6 weeks and will be happy to have her with us again! The other good thing is that it is close to the beaches (only 5-10min. by car) and very close to the mall. No complaints in that department :)! I am absolutely exhausted - but thankful that we found this solution for the time being. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! THANK YOU, JESUS!!!

NEVERTHELESS... The financing of the home didn't come through. The "baby" has been stillborn - or so it feels... We don't understand. We are disappointed. We are stressed, since we have to be out of our present housing in 2 days. NEVERTHELESS - we trust in God's sovereignty and what we know about his character."The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness."(Ex.34,9) He is righteous and just in ALL his ways! We have looked at all available rentals and there is none that suit our needs. We are now looking for another temporary housing. There is the possibility that we could buy another, cheaper home with the financing that has come through. But it all takes time. School is starting in less than a week and Rich has to leave for Fiji in a couple of weeks. So much for today. Please pray for us - for God to open up the right solution - and for our sanity:) and strength in the midst of all this and very busy schedules.

Back from Orama The girls and I got back from Great Barrier Island late Saturday night. I was completely exhausted from a full-on week and long trip back. The ocean was gorgeous once again and the smooth boat trip brought some inner healing to some nasty boat experiences in the past... :) It was a fabulous camp - an amazing bunch of the most beautiful people you could wish to hang out with! 200 people of ALL ages and coming from many countries, including Singapore, China, HongKong, South Africa, Germany, France and Russia! The majority of them having been or currently in full-time ministry. What a richness!!! God did some DEEP work in people's lives. As I was taking care of the children, I only got a tiny taste of what was happening at the meetings. But that was ok, since I knew it beforehand and I'd really only come for that. Great kids, too! We were teaching the kids to hear the voice of God and had an amazing experience one afternoon. Some children were out on the beach with a mother and as they asked God if he wanted to tell them anything, they started seeing a school of fish making up letters and words!!! Now have you EVER heard of anything like this???!!! (I sure haven't!!!) I've read that God can speak through a donkey and likes to have all kinds of other playful fun with his children, but having fish form letters for little 7-year-olds that just barely know how to read...?! Some of the words that were spelled were: FUN - LUV (interesting spelling!) - HE IS COMING - QUICKLY Hmmmmm.... we were blown away by this experience when we heard it. Too bad I wasn't there when it happened. But the Mother and kids were over the moon! Now this is encouraging for us, too. Is there ANYTHING too hard for God??? We are supposed to have the financing for our home lined up by today or tomorrow, so that we can do the down-payment and move in this week-end (we have to be out of the student housing we're in, since new students are arriving). Still no word about a sufficient security in Germany - nor any other breakthrough. I've got to admit that I am struggling - we all are... We feel to wait another couple of days for a breakthrough. The pressure is at its peak - Thanks for your prayers!!!

News from Great Barrier Island Believe it or not - we have the possibility to go on the internet in this hidden island-place called Orama on Great Barrier Island (where YWAM began!). And I've even got a few minutes to write to you. I just want let all of you, who have been praying, know things are going. Everything went just amazingly smoothly on our trip here! Got out of the house without stress (!), the 4-hour trip by car went great - and the best part - the ocean was as calm as it could have been!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I was so thrilled and thankful to God. It was a great trip and nobody got sick!!! The only interesting happening was when we arrived at Orama. Because the tide was too low, the skipper of the boat didn't want to go all the way onto the quai (is this the right english word?) to have us all go on land. At first they told us we'd have to wait in the boat for hours until the tide was high enough. Then they started bringing small boats out to where we were and were going to take us to land in small groups.After that they changed plans 'cause they figured it would take hours to get all of us on land (there were 150 of us). So we got to go another few minutes on that lovely boat to another port where we got picked up little by little with vans and cars and taken to Orama. It was quite adventurous and I didn't mind it one bit. The scenery is just beautiful and reminds me of some of the outer islands of Tahiti. The only down-side of it was that in all this confusion a bag of Kylie's got lost - with her only warm clothes, hat, sunscreen and our camera - NOT good! Kylie was so excited when we told her in the car that we were going to go on a boat. First she thought it was one of those small fishing boats that you see a lot these days (pulled by cars). When we told her that it was a big boat, she pondered for a second and then exclaimed: "Ooooohhh, we're gonna be with all the animals!!!!" (guess what Bible story she thought we're going to be part of?) LOL It is such a blessing how easy-going Kylie is. She is very social and already found several Dad-replacements and friends.When I tried to put her to sleep in her sleeping bag on the first evening in a prayer room close to the meeting room, she walked around the room and just LOVED it. Oh this - and oh that (a very small, simple room)."And there is the cross of Jesus (a big wooden cross) - and he died there - oh, this is AMAZING!" she said, and easily went to sleep there. We had just arrived less than 2 hours before but she was right at home. One of the first things she said when we arrived was, "This is my house now". No wonder Jesus told us to become like children! I love it! Yesterday she asked me: "What are all these people doing at my house?" :) I also love taking care of the kids here! We've already had a lot of fun so far and are expecting the children to be touched deeply by Jesus - along with all the adults. Thank you Jesus!!!Thanks for your prayers!

Almost off to Great Barrier Island I probably won't be blogging for the next 10 days or so, cause I'm taking off to http://www.malachi-4-6.com with the girls to take care of the children at the camp. I am very excited about it - despite the exhaustion of all the preparations! Felt in my heart when I heard about "The Gathering" a year ago that God was going to "show up" and I wanted to be there - and help in whatever area of need. When I committed myself to work with the children some months ago, I had no idea what situation we were gonna find ourselves in right now, but that's alright. I have found that the most significant things that have happened in ministry (at least in our lives) have been at the most unlikely times when we were stretched to the max and thought we weren't going to make it. I guess it's when we're weak that God can show himself strong - he's probably just waiting for that moment :) What I am not looking forward is the 4hour drive and 2 1/2hour boat ride to Great Barrier Island. I don't usually do too well in boat trips - and driving across Auckland isn't my favorite passtime either. So PLEASE pray with me for a good trip and that the ocean would be CALM AS CAN BE!!! Concerning our house purchase, we've had another breakthrough: There is a bank in Germany that is willing to give us a loan (quite amazing, really!!!) - under the condition that we find a guarantor. So - down to 8 days and one more miracle necessary! Lord, please find a person in Germany that would be willing to co-sign with us!!!! (nobody in sight as of today)

Happiness is a journey... ...not a destination. Don't you love it when you see a statement like that somewhere and it just sticks with you?! I've read this a while ago and it just keeps on popping into my thoughts as we are going through this very fascinating process of buying a home. And I am reminding myself daily to ENJOY the journey we are on. We can be as happy NOW as on the day that we find out that God has done the miracle and we can buy the house - even though we have no guarantee whatsoever that this is going to work out.! We HAVE TO be out of the dormitory by the end of January at the latest, school starts on Feb.7th, I am very busy with the preparations for the childrens ministry at the camp - just 3 days left, and there is no plan B. The financing of the home has to come through quickly! WE TRUST IN YOU, GOD! It has been great to get many encouraging responses from all over the world. We have even received a few financial gifts towards the home. The neat thing is that they have come from the US, Germany, Tahiti and yesterday, a NZ pastor called up from Auckland letting us know that their church will send us a gift, too (that was about an hour after he had received our newsletter!). We are really encouraged! Of course, our need is far more, but every little bit counts! I had a dream last week where our family was standing on the beach and all of a sudden, fish of all sizes started jumping out of the water left and right. It was very exciting and I remember thinking, "WOW, that's God's provision!" So, while we all continue to pray, let's praise God for the first fish that have started to jump out and ask HIM for the full release of the financing!

A little news - better than no news! It's hard to believe that it's been one month since my last entry. I feel sorry for those of you that keep hitting the same old entry every time you hope to find some new news. Well, not this time - yay! This last month has been crazy and good, all at the same time. It would take way too long to tell you all that has happened. Some of you would have just received our newsletter, but alas, not everyone that normally gets it, BECAUSE - the hard drive of our computer crashed this week - without warning - of course (why do they do that to us?). Most of our addresses are in Microsoft Outlook and that's the part we now don't have anymore. There should be a back-up SOMEWHERE in a box in storage, but there's NO WAY we can get that out real soon. So, if you'd like me to send you our newsletter, just email me on my richardgbetts@hotmail.com email address (yes, it is mine, too - we share :)) No need for a long email, just put newsletter in the subject line and I'll know. Ok, I could just call it a night right here. It's late, I'm tired and I've been sitting at a friend's house using her computer for over 1 1/2 hours (thank God for friends!) So you can just ask me for the newsletter and that says it all, at least the most important bits. How 'bout that? I think it's a good idea. That way, I'll also know if anyone is even still reading this blog :) And I can make my way home and - hopefully into bed - soon. Just a hint - we made an offer on Monday for the home that we are hoping to buy - - with the exact amount that Rich felt in prayer - - and the owners accepted it! So now we just need a BIG miracle for the financing to come through and it'll all be sweet, as they say here in NZ! Wanna know more? Email me :) Love ya, all you wonderful people! More some other time (besides the computer breaking down, we haven't had easy access to internet since our move, since the student dormitory where we're staying at the moment doesn't have internet access) Just to let you know there IS a reason for my silence :)!