Feelin' the Love

It's been a beast of a week - and it's only Tuesday! - but in the middle of PILES of paperwork to grade, data to analyze, activities to plan, and some (hopefully calming down...) work environment strain, I am choosing to recognize and - through that recognition - feel the love around me.

Gabe and I play a game sometimes, and today I taught it to a few of my students.  They seemed to be struggling with their attitude a little today - as was I - and I thought it would be timely for both me and them to play.  It's a very simple activity: it's called the Thankfulness Game.  The goal is to be the last one to say something you're thankful for.  You can't copy the other person, and you can't repeat yourself.

As I was teaching my students, hoping it would improve their moods, I found my strategy working on me, too (no surprise!).  I remembered to be grateful for things like a warm jacket, a car to drive, extra supplies in the storage room, people that have experience and heart that I get to work with, electricity, being close to family and friends, a beautiful sunrise this morning, a dry winter day, a husband full of compassion, and SO many others individual blessings.

This afternoon, when I opened my email, I was reminded of the wonderful "whanau" we have in NZ ready to welcome us, and how we get to see God starting to provide people to pledge financial support for our needs, and my sweet Mom who remembered to shoot me a Valentine's Day email with a little word of encouragement.

Today hasn't been filled with chocolate and roses and champagne (and that's perfectly OK - we've never been big on celebrating Valentine's Day as a couple!), and honestly, it hasn't been restful, relaxing, or stress-free, but I do feel loved.  I know I am remembered, cared for, appreciated, and enjoyed by the Creator of the Universe and people dear to my heart.

And that's worth being thankful for!

- dani

Monthly Financial Support

One of our tasks while we are home is to raise monthly financial support to go back to New Zealand in June to staff as missionaries with YWAM Marine Reach.

For the past 21 months, we've been living off of our savings, a small amount of monthly support from our church and a few family and friends, and (while we were in Thailand) our teaching stipend.

As a result, our savings has done its job of getting us through our vision trip and safely home.  Praise the Lord!  We're both working full-time jobs right now, and God has blessed us with multiple ways to save money, so we'll be stockpiling a good chunk of our income, which will go toward paying monthly expenses over the 18 months we've committed to YWAM, but we're still needing to raise support for the remaining funds.

So far, we have about 10% of the funding we've set as our target income pledged from our church and a handful of family and friends.

Would you consider asking the Lord if he would like you to partner with us in this way?

We trust that if God is opening this door for us to serve and minister with YWAM, he will provide what we need, but we also know that He often uses His church body to minister to different members.  We believe he will let you know if you're supposed to be part of investing in our ministry - we have no desire to coerce or manipulate or guilt anyone into giving!  So please, pray about it and seek HIS leading!  

We do, however, believe that God has directed us to be open about our desire and need for financial support, so that people who are willing might be able to give.  He's directed us to Exodus 35 as a reminder that he is the one that prompts hearts to give - Moses just shared the vision and the need.

Our great desire is to have financial support flow through relationship - for that reason, we are asking God to put on the heart of 30 people we know and that HE would desire for us to be in relationship with to pledge to support us at the rate of $50.00 per month.  

That would equal out to $50.00 per day toward our financial support, which would definitely get us a good chunk of the way toward our target support.  

We believe that the transfer of money will be a tangible way of strengthening a relationship - it will remind the givers to pray for us, read communication from us, and generally be not only financially but also emotionally invested in us and our work.  Likewise, as we receive that gift each month, it reminds us to pray for our supporters, reach out to them and communicate directly with them, and seek to be in intentional relationship with them also.  Our hope is that such a partnership would be far beyond simply financial but would truly be just one aspect of a friendship and spiritual partnership in what God is ultimately doing through ALL of us, as well!

We would love to hear from you if you have questions about financially supporting us.  Please feel free to email, call, or talk with us in person.  Again, we genuinely desire for relationships to be the foundation of all we do, so we look forward to any conversations that will build a relationship with you!

Love,
Gabe and Dani

New Zealand Road Trip, Home, and Jobs

Hello friends! Sorry for the long absence from the blog.  Your reward for your patiences is (FINALLY!) some photos in this update!  

We're in the USA, as you might know/have gathered, and we're back in the land of high speed (we mean REALLY high speed!!!) internet.  And we have a repaired computer track pad, so we can click-and-drag again.  This combination of fabulous features mean, like, a whole new world is opened with blogging!

So, where did we leave off?  We came back to New Zealand from outreach at the end of November.  The last week of DTS was a flurry of final hang outs and packing and cleaning and preparing for departure.

We had graduation - an energy-filled night of praise, worship, and honoring God for all he had done.  I think we all sang ourselves hoarse.  It was memorable - and great!

All dressed up for graduation!

After graduation, thanks to our awesome friend Emily, we had access to a car for a week, so we got to do a little touring around NZ.  We had some great adventures - meeting up with our friend Vince in Auckland,  eating granola for a week straight, sleeping in (first) a leaky tent on a single, tiny, blow-up camp pad, and then in the car, and then finally in a friend's gracious mother's spare room (Thanks again to our New Zealand Mother!!!).  We learned almond milk lasts a ridiculously long time without being refrigerated, it really is OK to trespass through people's sheep fields to reach amazing clifftop viewpoints, and morning coffee at a coffee shop after a long night in a tent just REALLY improves the day!

Gabe, on the cliff top, climbing over the sheep fence.
(Our guidebook, literally, directed us to this climb-over spot!)

Gabe's bed one rainy night. I curled up in the back seat...
Not the most comfortable, but definitely cheap!

With Sacha, our friend we made in Thailand.  We stayed with her
Mum for 4 nights and then got to road trip through the North Island.

And then, the day before our 4th wedding anniversary, we caught a bus, then a plane, then another plane, and then started the day over again as we crossed the international date line, and landed in Portland 4 hours BEFORE we left New Zealand - go us!

Here we are in the airport, so excited to go home - and so tan! ;)

We landed, and as we descended down through the clouds, we broke through to a beautiful dusting of white snow that had freshly fallen the night before.  I was SO excited to emerge into a winter wonderland!

Driving home!

We had a beautiful Christmas with our families - a full 2 weeks with Gabe's siblings from the East Coast, and a beach trip, and then a delightful weekend with my family.

The Kirkwood family out at the beach on a beautiful winter day.

 Gabe had a job lined up before we left New Zealand to work for the tax preparer's office, which started up a week after we said goodbye to all the family.  I, meanwhile, met with a local school district, was offered a full-time teaching job (I'd gone in to see if I could pick up a couple days subbing every so often), was conditionally certified to teach, and started my job the week after Gabe did.  

As if that wasn't enough amazing, providential blessings, Gabe's boss generously adjusted Gabe's work hours so that we can commute together to work and be on the same schedule!  

Whew!  So, it's been a whirlwind of 2 months, but so memory-filled and sweet.  And God continues to just go before us and provide all we need and so much more - it's really incredible to just continue to be a recipient of His grace, His kindness, His generosity!  We continually find ourselves just amazed by all that He does for us.