Mission.

Had a wonderful couple of weeks serving in the mighty hot Australia. Made some amazing friends, did a load of laughing, walking, talking, eating and dancing. I have loads of stories to share.
It's safe to say that I am now exhausted but my heart is overflowing. My life has been transformed and the friendships built are eternal.
We hardly had any downtime. I max of about 1-2 hours so I'm sorry if I didn't get a chance to catch up with you!

In other news...
27 days until Christmas! I cannot wait. I got home to Christmas lights and Christmas teddy bears on my bed. Time for Christmas shopping I think!

I hope you all have had a beautiful two weeks.

Dreams Alive.

Hello faithful friends!
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been meaning to but I have been a busy girl.
I just got home from my first ever woman's conference! What a beautiful way to spend a week/weekend. I wasn't sure what to expect but I knew God would do something wonderful.


Recently in my life I have been feeling like I lost dreams and dropped gifts that God has given me. At 'Sistas Woman's Conference', God was sure to spring those back into life!
Every speaker had an amazing word to bring but I may highlight about it on my next post since I have so much to talk about!


Alright, first of all...some things I am so excited about:

CHRISTMAS, Christmas decorating, Summer, Australia, spending time with my beautiful girlfriends, Thomas getting home from Scotland, Thomas' family coming for Christmas!!, family adventures, road trips around the north island, making Summer meals/drinks/snacks, taking lots of photos, getting a tan, lots of date nights, Summer fashion, Summer festivals and most of all growing in Christ and making my dreams come alive! Sounds cheesy but I am so overwhelmingly excited to grow in Christ this Summer and see my dreams take shape in order for direction to be pursued.

And now, my time to have a little proud moment.
My little brother and one of my best buds, Geoffrey, just got selected to be a school prefect! I couldn't be more proud of my baby brother! He now has the opportunity to lead his school friends and he may be selected to be head boy!
God is doing amazing things in his life. My parents and I often talk about the amazing leadership over his life as he grows in Christ. We started to notice it by the way he prays. He has great authority when he prays out. God is really transforming this kid and making him bold causing him to lead wisely. 
Well done little big brother!


To celebrate his last day of school for this year we grabbed some pluto juice and frozen yoghurt and took a walk down the bay.


Sorry this is brief. I'm extremely tired. My next post will be more detailed.


Here's some photo's from Sistas and my stroll with Geoff.

The Weekenders.

Happy weekend to you all.
Hope you all had or are having a great weekend!
How did you spend your weekend?

This weekend we celebrated my brother's 17th birthday (which is actually on Tuesday)
I had a great weekend of encounter where the Lord spoke to me personally a whole lot.
I'm so looking forward to being able to share God with other people each day this week as he grows in me from day to day. You never know what God will do as you are out in the supermarket or on your way to work.

My brother and I went for a little walk down on the farm and fields. Sometimes I forget how beautiful it is living on a farm with waterfalls and pretty trees.
Here's a couple of photo's.

Faults.

Okay, so I don't usually do more than one post a day. To be honest, I usually only post once a week or once every two weeks...

However, I just wanted to say SORRY about my TERRIBLE grammar. I never read through my posts before sending them. One that I am really embarrassed about is when I wrote 'Counsel' not 'Council'. True dork right here.
So, if you find an error, have a laugh and remember the fact that I never proof read my posts. I promise I'll proof read when my life gets less hectic.

Well now that I have made this post I may as well share a couple of photo's from an amazing camp I got to lead at! The best I have ever lead at. God grew me as a leader so much and I got to see God's power in great measures. My whole cabin came to Christ, I got to pray with people who felt the Holy Spirit for the first time and I got to sow seeds into some of the most precious girls! It was beautiful stuff. God's glory was lifted high to a great level. Praise God for His power and love that is steadfast, true and worth it all!

OH, and another important announcement... 62 DAYS UNITL CHRISTMAS!
I am so excited to spend time with my lovely family and Thomas' beautiful family this christmas! This Christmas is going to be ever so special. I can't wait to have a Kiwi and an American Christmas in one! Boom. Best of both worlds.

 

Chocolate Oreo Wonders.

I love to bake for people. I know my family and Thomas can agree on that one. I'm always testing out new goods for people to try. I'm not much of an unhealthy eater (apart from candy) but i do love to bake extremely unhealthy desserts for my friends. I make all my goods out of love. I even make labels and put them neatly in baskets or jars with ribbon. I hope one day when I start my own cakes and desserts shop that you will all visit and test out my goodies.
Whenever I make these Oreo balls they are gone in seconds, literally. They are on high demand. Some people wondered if angels from heaven dropped them on earth because they were so good ha.

So without further ado, here is my recipe:
Oh and if you were wondering how I came upon this, I just figured cream cheese and chocolate work well so I thought I would make them into a truffle with Oreo's. I assume there will be a recipe of them somewhere else on the internet but i purely used my own initiative on this one so I have no reference :)


Ingredients:

• 2 packets of Oreo's (use any flavour. Strawberries & cream were a hit)
• 250g Spreadable Cream Cheese
• 250g block of Creamy Milk Whittakers Chocolate (you can use any chocolate. Whittakers is just the best!)
• Butter (for melting chocolate)

Method:

• Mix the 2 packets of Oreo's in a food processor until finely crushed.
• In a bowl mix together the cream cheese & processed oreo's.
• When completely mixed together take mixture and roll into small balls and place them on a tray to chill in the freezer for 30 minutes. 
• Once chilled, melt chocolate and butter in a pot until the chocolate has melted smoothly.
• Dip the chilled Oreo balls in chocolate and place back on the tray ready to be chilled again for a further 30 minutes. Once chilled take them out and watch them disappear before your eyes.

So there we have it! Quick, easy and delicious!

If you do happen to make these, I would love to hear from you with a comment below or an email/facebook message :)

PS. Sorry I took SO long to post this and i am so sorry about the TERRIBLE grammar. I kind of rush these and do not proof read them. I can't say I listened that much in English class either. In fact, I drew pictures and talked most of the time. But I'll try fix what I can.

strolling.

i enjoy saturdays. i woke up early, went for a run, made some cheese scones and banana choc nut muffins to give to the iDTS for breakfast then went to the mount with thomas.

thomas had never been around the mount (i know, right?) so we decided to take a little stroll. and a stroll wouldn't be complete without some photo's, some rock climbing, some kekeno's (fur seal), turkish and a trip to good food trading co after (we go there far too often)

here's some photo's from our walk around the mount.

(fur seals)

aren't we blessed to live in such a beautiful city? i love experiencing God's beauty through creation. it blows my mind every day. thank you Lord :)