Laura In New Zealand

Welcome

Kia Ora! Which means Welcome in Maori (the Native people of NZ). I'm so glad you have found my blog and that you are interested in the many wonderful things happening in my life. The purpose of this site is to keep you, my friends and family, updated on my adventures while I staff the Snowboarders Discipleship Training School for 2007. It's so great to have so many people who support what I am doing here and I would love to hear your insight, questions, or stuff about your life in the comment portion of this blog. It's pretty fun and it lets me know that my hours of work putting up pictures and writing are not just for me. There's a lot of stuff in the archives so feel free to start at the beginning. If you want to know what the Base looks like go to the Ode to Oxford section and you will see photos of my house and town. There are also a lot of photos from my outreach in India last year. Happy viewing.
You can also go to my MYSPACE account at www.myspace.com/travelinglaura.

Back From India

I'm finally back from outreach in India. I am now in New Zealand finishing up the DTS. We have a final week with the students and then the staff will have one more week of debriefing and hanging out. It has been an amazing school and I will be sad to say good bye to so many friends, but I'm also looking forward to returning home. My plans have changed and I will be flying to Denver on the 16th and will be there until the 23rd. I will be back in Washington on the 29th of December. I can't wait to see all my friends at home.

Here are a few pictures from India. It was an amazing trip and I have so much to share. I will have more later, as well as some video.

Me and a couple Nepali girls on a roof top market in Gangtok

Riding an elephant with Laura and Bree in Jaipur

The girls and I in a house church in Darjeeling

Me and the boys at the Taj Mahal

India

Hey All

Sorry for not updating this thing in AGES, but I have been busy on outreach and every time I go to update, the internet crashes. We are currently in Siliguri which is in the state of West Bengal on the North Eastern part of India. It's reasonably warm, but not too hot, thank God. There are a lot of mosquitos. We just got done ministering in Darjeeling which is in the mountains at 7000 feet. It was beautiful there and the people were so kind. The owner of the hotel we stayed at was especially nice...sort of like our team Dad. He took care of Jon and I when we were sick with the flu a few weeks ago. We had lots of opportunities to encourage the local church in their youth services and home groups. It was so awesome to be able to worship God with people who speak a different language because it is the same spirit.

We've had some interesting happenings since being here in India. The first night we arrived, one of the taxis we took tried to scam 4 of the students by telling them that they didn't know where the hotel was. Then they proceeded to drive around and finally stopped at a tourist info place where the people there tried to get them a rediculously expensive hotel. They were set on going back to the airport when finally a totally different driver, "remembered" where the hotel was. So I was waiting at the hotel with 2 other students praying and waiting on the street for 2 hours until they finally arrived. Around 12:30 at night they did, and there was much rejoicing. Hopefully that doesn't happen again....a little stressful for our first night after flying for 15 hours. They did awesome and I think they know now that they are capable of so much more than they think.

We are going on a 24 hour train ride this Friday to Delhi where we will work with the IHOP there. It should be a good experience. Please continue to pray for us. For our safety, health, and spiritual guidance.

Weekends

A couple weekends ago me and another staff took two van loads of people over to the West Coast. The weather wasn't all that great, but I had a really fun time hanging out with the students. We stayed at a nice Beach Hostel and saw some cool sites. If you want to see more pictures when it's sunny go to my archives and find June of 2006. We saw the pancake rocks at Punakaiki and did a short trek that led us to an amazing ocean bay. On the drive home we went to a cave, but we didn't have the right gear to fully explore it. We will go back in 2 weeks with lights and clothes that can get wet. Last weekend I decided to trade my snowboard boots for ski boots and I had a great time re-learning to ski. It was amazing how scary black runs are on skis when they are cake on a snowboard.

To update those of you who may not have gotten the e-mail, God did a miracle with finances and provided through a few VERY generous people ALL the money Joy needs for outreach. Thanks so much to those of you who have been praying, God is answering your prayers.

This week we have an amazing couple speaking named Jay and Erin. The main revelation I have received is that the whole point of Christianity is being in relationship with the Trinity. They are perfect love because God IS love. It never says in the Bible that God IS wrath or anger, but His character and nature is in fact love. Pretty profound, if you think about it for a bit.

Arthur's Pass

Hokitika Gorge

Me with Jose and Matt

The West Coast

Cave Stream

The water is freezing...brrrrr!

Rosie and I at Mt. Hutt

Yes, I did try skiing again last weekend. I'm really soar now.

Church Serving Week

The purpose of church serving week is to do exactly that, serve churches. We split up into our outreach teams last week and got sent out all over the South Island to spend a whole week doing whatever needed to be done at various churches. My India team and I went all the way up to Blenheim to serve a church called The Elim Centre. This was actually the home church for one of my students, so he got an opportunity to spend some time with family and friends. We got to stay with different families from the church and we were so blessed by their hospitality. Me and another student named Laura stayed with an amazing couple. It felt like being home again. We spent hours talking over dinner about anything and everything, but mostly we talked about God. They were full of Biblical wisdom pertaining to politics, science, and life in general. It was mentally stretching, but so worth it to engage in meaningful conversation. Our team spent the day doing manual labour. They have a ministry that provides a fun place for kids on their school holidays. They have bouncy castles and a go-cart track and now thanks to our team, they have a mini-mini-golf course. We hauled a lot of dirt, dug out a lot of rocks, mixed concrete, cemented a patio, and prepared the ground for grass. It was hard work, but they were so appreciative of our help. We also shared testimonies at their young adults group and youth group, as well as helped out with Sunday school. Laura and I managed to convince the son of the couple we were staying with to come to church for the first time in a long time. I am continuing to pray for him.

We had an incredible week bonding as a team. I really like every single person and I'm so excited to spend 10 weeks with them in India. We leave in less than 4 weeks. Please be praying with us for finances and other logistical things. One student still needs 4,600 NZ dollars as well as her passport and visa. As a whole, our team needs $8,300. We are believing that God will provide and we are looking forward to seeing how He is going to do it. Enjoy the pictures.

Because some of you have asked, here is my contact info again:

YWAM PO BOX 47 Oxford,
New Zealand 7443

YWAM website www.ywamoxford.org

Prayer before being sent out to serve.

Kaikoura is on the way up to Blenheim
Probably one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Seal colony

The Lupi Family me and Laura stayed with

Picton
We went here on our day off to play and have fun

Our team with the associate pastor who helped with the projects

Jon cementing a patio

Zack and Nick building the crazy gold course

Love Feast and Group Photos

Well, here's some more pics. I'm off to a town called Blenheim for Church Serving week tomorrow with my outreach team. We will be back next Sunday and I'm sure I'll have plenty more pictures. We are now halfway through the lecture phase which means we are only 6 weeks away from outreach! It's crazy how time flies. Please be praying for our team because we need a lot of finances. One girl almost had to be sent home this week because she didn't have any of her lecture phase paid for, but God totally did a miracle and provided through the other students to pay for all of it. She still has the entire outreach to pay for and there are a few others including me, who still owe a couple hundrend. God can to do anything though.

We just got finished doing our anual Angels and Mortals week where each of us picks someone out of a hat to bless for the whole week. Mandi was my mortal and I was her secret Angel. I had a lot of fun getting her gifts, writing her fun notes, and having other students sing her songs and stuff like that. I was a good Angel. We ended the week with a big feast where we dressed up and pigged out of yummy food. It was a lot of fun, but I will be honest. This week was exhausting and non-stop. I'm hoping to catch up on some sleep this next week.

That's all for now. Enjoy the pics.

Mandi and Me

My Small Group

Jen, Ben, and Me

Team India
Nick, John, Joy, David, Zac, Laura, Bree, and Me

Small Group

Queenstown and Remarkables

DTS Pics So Far

The DTS is going great. The students are awesome and they are really hungry for more of God. The school is pretty young this year, but they are a lot of fun. We just got back from a trip down to Queenstown to snowboard and visit a cool church plant for snowboarders. Our speakers last week were my outreach leaders from my DTS so it was really good to see them again. I have been reminded of all the amazing things God did in my life during that time. They spoke on the Kingdom of God and how important it is to have signs and wonders accompany your ministry. Many students experienced God in a way they never have before last weekend and it truly was an unforgettable trip. Unfortunately, I got injured snowboarding and so I son't be able to go for a few weeks. I hurt my ribs, cartalig, and muscles on my left side. It hurts to breath without pain killers. I also have a cold right now so I could use some prayer. My spirit is doing well though. I found out that I am offically going to India for outreach. I have 3 women and 4 men on my team. It's a really good group of students and I am so excited! If you want to know more about what God is doing, throw me an e-mail. lauraleighreimer@gmail.com

The Staff team this year eating out in Christchurch.

My small group, Lyndsey, Linda, Me, Laura, and Liz. 5 L's!

That's right, it's me snowboarding up at Mt. Hutt. This is before I got injured.

Road trip down to Queenstown

Lake Tekapo

My friend Toby and I at the lake. He's on staff this year.

Friends

Staff girls...and creeper Ben

Australia

So I know this was a month ago, but I found some time to put pics up from Australia where I visited Justin and Malia Isenhart. If you want to see any cool videos from the trip go to www.projectisenhart.com.

They are doing the Hillsong Worship College for a year. I had such a good time with them and I'm so glad I got to see another part of the world. Sydney is a really cool city even though it rained the whole time I was there. We got to go to the zoo and I got to feed Kangaroos and other crazy Australian animals. It was fun. Thanks Justin and Malia for such a great time. Miss you guys. You're so incredible and I can't wait to hang out in Tacoma with you in January.

Korea

I had a great time visiting Mike Clark in South Korea. We spent some time being tourists in Soeul and ate lots of good food. I was suprised to find that everything is VERY expensive there and that the people are similar to Americans in that they love having material items, especially technology. EVERYONE had a cell phone and so many people had really expensive NICE digital cameras...Big ones like the Nikkon D200. It's like they were all professional photographers or something. Seosan was much smaller and much more "Korean" but they still had a Dominos and a Baskin Robins, which is nice for the foreign teachers who live there. I got to meet some of Mike's co-workers and they were all very hospitable. I hung out with a really sweet Christian women named Maria all week. She shared with me that her husband works Monday-Saturday from around 9:00 in the morning until 8:30 at night and until 1:00 on Saturday. That is a typical males work schedule. WOW...talk about busy. I also got a chance to go to dinner with an old friend from my DTS in 2004. Her and her husband live an hour outside of the City and they came in just to see me. I was honoured. I am so thankful I got a chance to visit one of my best friends and I am so blessed to have such an amazing friend. Mike, thanks for treating me like a princess.