February 1st Update.. A little bit delayed

Regretably, this update comes over a month and a half late. As you find in my next update, which should come shortly, I have had an extremely busy last couple of weeks, and internet access has been limited. Enjoy, there will hopefully be more regular updates
-Zakk.. (on March 21st)

February 1st
It is now February 1st, and I am writing to you from Capernwray New Zealand, my home for the next 5 months! Finally being able to settle down, and not worry about what we are going to be doing the next day is such a relief, and we are so ready for it!! Two weeks have passed since we were last in Calgary, and so much has happened already! We are truly looking forward to the next months we get to spend here, just being around some of the staff and some of the other students, it is very clear to see and feel that this is a place designed to meet with God.

The last couple of days have certainly been different. Our independence hit us, a few days after the Worners left us, and having all of our time and money to do with it as we pleased, felt so different. We have done some cool things, but also had some moments when we felt burnt out, and we had days where we have sat around and done very little. One of the cool things that we were able to do in Sydney, was experience Australia day on January 26th. All of the country’s major national events on Australia take place in Sydney, so we were able to see and soak in some Australian culture! In the morning we woke up early(ish), and took the train to Bondi Beach, which is the most popular beach in Australia. It is known for being extremely busy, and attracting a young crowd. When we got there, we got exactly what we expected. The beach was scattered with tens of thousands of people, so much so that when you looked down the beach you couldn’t even tell what color the sand was! The weather forcasted for rain and high 20’s, however we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was 35 degrees, without clouds in the sky! We had a wonderful day on the beach, and returned to the city in the mid-afternoon, so that we could get to darling harbour by 6, because that is where they were having the country’s major Australia day celebrations.
The harbour was absolutely loaded with families, tourists, and teenagers stopping by before hitting up the harbour-side bars and nightclubs. There was probably around 50 thousand people cramming around the waterside so that they could watch the festivities that were taking place on a massive floating stage. There was the presentation of Australian of the year, a performance by the recently announced Australian Idol (Who was about as good as any given Canadian Idol..), and many other things to entertain the crowd, before a 15 minute world-class firework display. There was fireworks being launched from the harbour, and many buildings downtown, creating a sensory overload as we all struggled to take in the sights and sounds that were before us. All in all, it was a pretty cool day, and we were all very proud to be Australian!
The next day was a slower day, as we got ready to leave the next day, packing all of our stuff and trying to buy last minute souvenirs.. (Which we failed at, so don’t get excited!) That evening we went to a late showing of Avatar in 3D, on the world’s largest IMAX screen. We had all already seen the movie, but seeing it on such a massive screen in Australia, was a really cool experience, and one that we will always remember! The next morning, we woke up at 5am, and were off to the Airport to depart to New Zealand.. This was the last flight we were scheduled to be on for many months, and we were all so excited about that!
When we arrived in Auckland, and managed to get through their ridiculously high security, we were met by the Nichols, some friends of mine, and they took us back to their home in a suburb on the outskirts of Auckland. We were shown where we could catch the ferry into Auckland, shown the location of the grocery store, and then my friends parents took off to go volunteer at a massive Christian festival called Parachute festival. The festival is two hours from Auckland, and ten minutes from Capernwray. We were given the opportunity to go to it all weekend, and we told them we were okay to go or stay at their house, depending on what was easier, and the way it worked out we ended up staying at their house in Auckland, with their daughter Paige, who worked all day Friday and Saturday. We had a slow weekend.. we went and saw Invictus on opening night in New Zealand..(Over a month after it had opened in Canada), on the world’s largest movie theatre! The theatre was immense, and all of the seats were lay-z boy seats, and were extremely comfortable! We also took a beautiful ferry ride into downtown Auckland, and walked around the city core for a couple of hours, looking at different souvenir shops and New Zealand All-Black stores, which were really cool, but ridiculously expensive! My favourite moment spent in Auckland was Saturday night, when Phil and I took out the two guitars that the Nichols owned, and we had and had a really long jam session. We were teaching each other songs, and theory that we knew, and trying lots of new things. At one point we realized that Phil knew how to play the intro to my favourite United Song, “From the Inside Out”, and I knew all of the chords, so we played together, him doing lead and me doing Rhythm, and then switched back and forth sporadically while we quietly sang along the familiar lyrics. It was a really cool moment of bonding we had, and a moment we’ll hopefully have many more of in the future!
On Sunday (Yesterday), we woke up early and head out to Parachute Festival with Paige and her boyfriend to meet up with the rest of the Nichol family. Before getting to the campus, we went to Capernwray to drop off some of our valuables, because we were planning on staying in a tent and didn’t want to have our laptops and passports on us! While at Capernwray, the rain came down as hard as I had ever seen it rain at that point in my life, and so we waited inside for about an hour for the rain to clear, and when it did we left to go to parachute conference. While at parachute it rained sporadically, and so we spent most of our time listening to different local New Zealand bands play, which was really cool. We were so surprised at how good the local talent from New Zealand was, especially considering that we had never heard of most of the bands. Later that night we met up with James Kricken, and Kelsey Bartel, two good friends from Calgary that Ryan and I knew, and about 6 other Capernwray students that were travelling with them. It was really cool to catch up, and talk about school, and it got us all excited to start school on Tuesday. We met up in time for the main stage concerts to start, which were Parachute Band, and Leeland, followed by a late night Hillsong United concert. We spent the first two concerts mainly just talking with the other Capernwray students, but by the end of Leeland we were all dispersed in the massive 30,000 person crowd, singing and worshipping our hearts out. Around 10:30 Hillsong United came out, and almost simultaneously to them entering the stage, the skies opened up and powerful rains came crashing down. Joel Houston asked the crowd if a little bit of rain was going to stop us from worshipping, and he told us that it wasn’t going to stop the band, so the concert went on. United played an absolutely amazing worship set, and as the night went on and songs went by, the rain only came down harder, and our voices only got louder. We stood there, as 30000 but were all singing in one voice, and it was so evident that the worship we experienced last night was so honest, and so heartfelt, and the experience was truly beyond anything words could express. While we stood in the rain, saturated from head to toe, with knees aching from jumping, and voices hurting from shouting, the familiar words began to be sung “a thousand times i’ve failed, still your mercy remains”, and Phil and I stood beside each other beaming from ear to ear as we realized that they were playing our favourite song, the one that we had worshipped to just the night before. We sang “my heart and my soul, I give you control.. Consume me from the inside out”, and as the rain poured down it actually felt as though the rain was washing me clean, clean of myself and of my past, and preparing the way for God to consume me from the inside out, and I almost broke down into tears. As the night went on, the worship just got more and more powerful. At one point, when the band had cut out, the crowd shouted as loud as we could “Hosanna in the highest”, and I thought to myself.. This is exactly what we were created to do. It brought so my excitement to my heart as I started to look forward to the next 5 months. I’ve finally gotten to the point that I think I’m ready to be at bible school, I’m ready to learn, and I’m ready to continue to worship Him like I did last night.
Unfortunately due to all of the rain that came down last night, we were unable to stay in the tent that we had set up at the festival, as it (and basically every one of the tents on the grounds) got flooded. Instead of staying there for the night, and attending a few events that were planned at the festival, we called it a festival and were able to come back to Capernwray, and crash on a few couches for the night. We’ve spent the day today doing chores, helping the staff prepare the rooms for all of the students to arrive tomorrow. I am so excited for school to start. Ryan and I leave for ABS (Adventure Bible School) tomorrow, which is a 6 week physically and mentally intensive program, which we are both scared, and excited for!! During that time I will not have my computer on me, so the next update will come in Mid-March. I’m looking forward to talking to you about the experience!
God bless,
Zakk.