Kia Ora!
Kia Ora! Or, hello! from New Zealand. I’m a month in here and week out from returning to the soil of the USA, much to my excitement. It’s been a privilege to travel all over this country and experience the natural beauty and exciting activities it has to offer travelers from all over the world (mostly Brits though I should add). The Kiwi Bus experience has been a good and interesting one. I’ve been able to share my faith with a handful of individuals along the way, which has been very encouraging. Amazing what conversations and open Bible can bring up. Aside from this, I’ll be honest and say that I’m tired of dorm rooms in hostels, the backpacker diet, the non-stop partying and one night stands of fellow travelers, and the lack of someone to relate to in my faith. I’ve become a tad anti-social towards the end here because of this, maybe for the best at times. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed time alone tramping different trails and up different mountains. I have found a new hobby indeed. Anyway, maybe next time there will be some more detail and accompanying pictures, but for now I’m afraid this will have to do. I’ll leave you with some thoughts from New Zealand.
Of What The Mountains Speak
There’s something about mountains. They declare what no mouth of man can utter. In the shadow of their magnificence we understand our insignificance. And they, in the shadow of their Creator, understand that they are to be but dust. While we struggle and triumph and hope and fear and dream and die, there they stand, unmoved by the tragic existence of mankind below them. They cover the earth as a testament to One unchanging, and even though one day these too will fall, they accept the time of their fate with no grief, only trust, knowing they were created only to rise and fall by the hand of their Maker. If only we could believe that we were made to be as such, as mountains. Unmoved, unshaken, unrivaled, unafraid, because we are made in the image of One unmovable, unshakable, unrivaled, One not knowing fear. Oh if we could trust our fate to Him as mountains, indifferent to the end and standing strong in this hour. Faith, trust, hope and love. Yes, of these rock and stone know nothing about, but we as His beloved must, or these mountains of rock and stone will cry out, putting us to shame while fulfilling our destiny because we will not. Tomorrow, I know not what it holds, and whether these mountains stand or not when it comes, I know the One who will remain, and because of Him, I as well. With you, oh mountains of rock and stone, I will not be laid to waste, because on Christ the solid rock I stand, the Chief Cornerstone, upon Whom and all under will be crushed, yet I never destroyed. In this I rest.
You are my unmoving mountain, my strong refuge, the wing under which I take shelter, and the song I will never cease to sing.
Be blessed, Beloved Children of God.
-Nielsen
