Hey everyone! We’ve had an incredible first week forming our own community, focusing on our aims for our time here and marvelling at the incredible landscape. We have grown so close, so quickly, over intense spoon games, soggy ‘tramps’ (walks) and great discussions about faith.
Hallo Freunde, Nach einer Woche Off the grid melden wir uns. In dieser Woche ist schon einiges passiert. Von Gemeinschaft, Kennenlernen, intensiven Spoon Spielen, Wandern in triefend nassen Klamotten, Kennenlernen, und Geistlichen Diskussionen war alles mit dabei. Also viel Spaß beim Lesen :).
This week, two of our OTG Leaders, Norm and Penny Sue, took us to Nelson Lakes National Park for our first tramp. So…imagine that you’ve travelled to the other side of the world, leaving behind family and friends. You’ve then marched up a river valley, before swimming in an icy lake and all you can rely on is the comforting, healing power of a nice hot cup of Yorkshire tea. Then horror of horrors you discover that there has been a catastrophic error and the neatly labelled tea bags have been replaced by the bag of ‘spare’ tea bags - made up of the likes of Camomile!!!! Pandemonium broke loose, a 3 Brit team, and no Yorkshire tea!! I warned that the following morning I may have to be ‘scraped off the hut floor’! The trauma of this experience was clearly not shared by all as the Kiwi, Aussie, Hong Kong, German and Swiss team mates merely rolled their eyes and smirked at the drama that was unfolding. This experience, however, did grow us as a team, as we had to learn to support one another - as well as drowning our sorrows in hot chocolate instead!
From the very beginning we have bonded instantly! Seated on the grass under the warm, southern-hemisphere sun, we established our OTG community rapidly. Giggles both late into the evening sat around candles at the hut, and bright-and-early trying to see a sunrise in the mountains have unified us into a powerful team. Even when bear-like snoring shook the bunks of our hut, we rallied around one another- especially those who’d opted for a night ino the frigid mountain air to escape the rumbles. One fellow hut visiter commented that it was impossible that “these girls have only known each other for 2 days?!?!” as our chatting never ceased.
A first on OTG, four of us have birthdays this coming week! We celebrated with an OTG birthday bash. We are now heading into week 2 of our time on OTG! Please watch this space in the coming weeks and leave a short comment.
Prayer Requests:
We would continue to grow in our faith and experience God’s work in our lives. As our bible studies get harder and deeper, we would retain drive and motivation to pursue our goals and gain a deeper understanding of God’s word.
For continued good health and protection from injury on our adventures so that we can really make the most of our time here.
We would continue to grow as a team and learn how to best support each other.
Thank you for praying for the team!
Written by Alina (Germany) & Lizzie (UK) on behalf of the entire OTG Team!