The Journey Comes to An End
Hello everyone,
Wow, six incredible weeks laying behind us. At first, thank you all for supporting us in prayer, we had such a blessed time together and God spoke to all of us. As well as we were protected by God from injuries and other difficulties. Thanks for every single prayer and everyone who joined the blog! We are looking back to so many unique memories, first time seeing OTG Basecamp and our team, our first tramp together, all the cozy nights in the huts and the beautiful walks… We can’t even mention them all... It was crucial that our leaders told us to enjoy every single moment, especially the small moments.
God shaped each of us in a unique way. We learned heaps of skills and important things, which have a very big value for us as young adults. To close the week off, we went on a really appreciated road trip to see some more of the famous places around NZ. The roads took us through wonderful landscapes along the coast and through the middle of the mountains. We had a great last week together as the “Off The GRID Family”.
In this week we set our focus on the time after Off The GRID. We sorted ourselves and thought about our plans for the new season, what we want to start, stop and keep doing. We want to keep the momentum, our thoughts and new perspectives going.
Since we realised that this will be our last blog ever, we wanted to make it remarkable. So that’s why we decided to ask the girls two questions with the idea to get a perspective on how they’ve experienced OTG. The first question sounds like this: ‘What stood out for you in what you learned during this program?’
Jemima: Over the past 6 weeks I have learnt so much that it would take days to write about it all! A few highlighted points that have become a fresh realisation to me are…Gods plan never ever, ever fails. He will never leave you. He is worthy of all praise and gratitude. Perspective is key! Transitioning into the next season I am looking forward to apply all that I have learned…No backing down!
Beckie: God has a big, vast, beautiful plan that I’m honoured to be a part of. I am ready to put in the hard work and to see how God will use me to bring glory to his kingdom.
Tabea: I want to honour God with everything I do and I want to let God work through me so that I can bring Him glory.
Here is the second and last question: ‘What was your highlight in OTG?’
We asked Jemima the question and she told us that she loved the glowworm caves in the Abel Tasman National Park. Despite the fact that we had to wait about an hour to enter the caves because of the high tide, it was worth it since it was a unique experience, seeing those special creatures glowing. Jemima was also surprised by some nice big spiders casually hanging (out, hehe) on the ceiling Then Tabea came to us and shared some of her highlights. She just enjoyed spending so much quality time in nature - hiking in nature, going to sleep under a sky full of stars and waking up to multiple very beautiful sunrises. Being surrounded by God’s beautiful creation from dawn to dusk, together with good friends, what a privilege. And last but not least we asked the one and only queen of veggie mite herself, also known as Beckie, what stood out for her. Some of her favourite memories were made in the hut, circled around the table and playing games. She appreciated every sunset she experienced. She saw her first shooting star this morning and she was thrilled! It was always a highlight for her to eat veggie mite after she woke up.
Now the story ends here, but our new season will start soon. Some of us will stay a little bit longer here in New Zealand, for others the normal life will continue in the usual surroundings. We are all exited about all the highlights God prepared and we feel very encouraged to jump back in our “normal” lives. We want to thank everyone who made this time possible for us, the leaders here, as well as everyone working in in the background in the local ministry. Thanks for all your effort and prayer!
Written by Jonas (Germany) and Aron (Netherlands) on behalf of the entire Off The GRID Team