Stu­dents abroad look for­ward to rest of se­mes­ter

 Wa­ter­falls. Kayak­ing. Rain­storms. Snor­kel­ing. For the hand­ful of stu­dents spend­ing a se­mes­ter abroad in the Pa­cific Rim, dreaded In­di­ana win­ters have been re­placed with the year-round sum­mer cli­mate of New Zealand, the first long term stop on the trip’s 14 week course.

The team is fin­ish­ing up its ex­tended stay in Auck­land, the cap­i­tal city of New Zealand, where they have been study­ing at a lo­cal uni­ver­sity. Over the past sev­eral weeks the stu­dents have had the op­por­tu­nity to do more than just bungee jump and go to the beach—they have built friend­ships and wor­shipped God with be­liev­ers from all over the world.

"One of the best things so far on the trip has been the Para­chute Fes­ti­val, where we got to have an evening of wor­ship with Hill­song United," said se­nior Laura Miller. "It was amaz­ing, even in the pour­ing rain. It was a great at­mos­phere to wor­ship God."

For Miller, the best ex­pe­ri­ence has been the time she has shared with her fel­low class­mates.

"The most im­pact­ing part has been see­ing God work through the group so far," said Miller. "We have got­ten along so well and have had alot of fun to­gether. I am ex­cited to see the things he is go­ing to do in and through this group in the other places we travel."

The al­lure­ment of the warm cli­mate and scenic land­scape has not es­caped the at­ten­tion of sopho­more Josh Win­ning­ham, who ad­mits that his fa­vorite ac­tiv­ity so far has been "watch­ing the amaz­ing New Zealand sun­sets on the beach while play­ing foot­ball in the waves."

Up next the stu­dents will have a short stay in Aus­tralia in which Miller said they will be "go­ing to the Syd­ney zoo, walk around the opera house\har­bor and go to Hill­song Church on Sun­day night."

They will do this be­fore head­ing to Fiji. While in Fiji the team will par­tic­i­pate in var­i­ous min­istry op­por­tu­ni­ties as well as tour the is­land and ex­pe­ri­ence the na­tive cul­ture.

"Every­thing is not com­pletely set yet about what all we are do­ing, but [we] are trust­ing that God will pro­vide," said Miller.

There is a lot of ac­tion and travel set for the fol­low­ing three weeks as the stu­dents make their way through Fiji, back to Hawaii and even­tu­ally home to Bethel.

"[The sched­ule] is very in­tense and we are do­ing so much, but the group is very anx­ious and ex­cited to go," said Miller. "We have our eyes open and are ex­cited about what God is go­ing to do!"