Teachings Start

This first week has been awesome. Your prayers have definently been helping. I have really bonded with the 3 guys that I am sharing a room with (Adrian-Oregon, Tim-Mississippi, and Levi-Canada) Teachings started on Wednesday afternoon and they are great. This whole week (Wed-Fri) are teachings on the Nature and Character of God. I have really had fun going to the Gap and just worship God with others. Wednesday has been the best day so far. We had "recreation" and played volleyball with water balloons and it was was quite refreshing after having the sun beat down on us for hours. After that I had some time alone in my cabin just playing the guitar and worshipping. Later that evening Adrian and I got a huge group of people to gather in the Gap and just hang out and play games. For about 4 hours from 7-11 we played ninja, Wa, and mafia. It was so much fun! Us guys walked back to our cabin and read a chapter of "Is That Really You God" together. After that we were just laying talking about our lives and what we see God doing. We decided to just go to the prayer room and just soak in the presence of God together praying for each other. We have all really struggled with many of the same things in our life. All of us did know about each others lives because we had told our "life stories" in front of our DTS during the past week. It was amazing to see everyones low points and high points. We ended our time in the prayer room at about 1 am Thursday morning and we all felt like it was a great time and we really got closer as brothers. Your prayers are very much appreciated still for focus.

Thanks,

Matthew

A First Look at New Zealand

After a great 13 hour flight on a huge New Zealand Airlines 747 plane I found that I was quite tired. I got picked up at Auckland airport and drove about 10 minutes to Kings Kids around 9 o'clock a.m. NZ time. Kings Kids is where I will be staying untill Saturday evening where we will be taking the 2 hour drive up to the base in Matamata. I was the 3rd student to arrive and about 8 have come since. We are expecting 15 students in our whole DTS. Mostly all of Thursday I slept and relaxed and talked with the other DTS students. I woke up today (Friday) and made some breakfast and talked with the leaders and some students. At about 12 o'clock me and 3 other girls had a great time of worship just playing random songs. It was a great start to this "school of worship." Around 3 we left for Auckland City. In the city we walked around and went in different local shops, it was quite fun. We ate at a Japanese resturant and just sat and talked until we had to leave again to return to Kings Kids. I am heading to bed now and looking forward to finally settle in at our base in Matamata.

p.s. I love the weather here. Today it was quite windy but sunny. Very beautiful and green!

Your prayers are much appreciated.
- Matthew

One week left!

Well, this is it, my last week in the States. Last week I got as much as I could ready to leave. My finances are coming in very well. I need about $500 more. Praise the Lord! Thank you to everyone who has supported me and I look forward to this incredible opportunity I have.

Thanks,

Matt