Prayers and Praise!!! Part 2 New Zealand

…Now to expound upon that subject I brought up in my very first post of this blog. New Zealand! It became a place of interest for me last year when I started brain storming about ways to go traveling again in order to hopefully regain that joy and happiness I felt I had lost. There were tons of work abroad programs to choose from like working in vineyards, sheep farms, or organic farms. But before I would commit to anything like that I chose to visit my family in Tennessee and North Carolina as you all know. Then I think sometime around April I got contacted by a girl named Lindsey who works with the missionary program I was involved with in 2006 called Youth With a Mission (Ywam). She started sharing with me a vision and a plan for the school she is going to be leading next year at the Ywam base in Oxford, New Zealand. Crazy! I know! It’s the same discipleship training school that I was apart of in Maui but instead of being about surfing its focused on sustainable living, organic farming, and general care for the earth through a biblical approach. And through many conversations with Lyndsey and hearing her heart and vision for the school, along with a lot of prayer I have decided to help her and the base in Oxford make that vision for the school a reality. The next school doesn’t start until March or October next year, but there is a trip taking place this October to do a bunch of work on the base in preparation for the schools next year. The objectives of this trip are to make the base more self-sustainable by building a garden, possibly a green house or 2, a shed made from re-claimed wood for gardening tools, chicken coups made out of re-clamed wood and, to begin the process of composting, and also just brainstorming about ideas for the base and how to make it more self sustained and functional by the time the school started next year.

I know some of you may be thinking that its an awfully long way to travel to just do a few building projects, but another objective that’s more specific to me is to meet everyone on base, help and serve them, and to see if I would be interested in being a member of the school’s staff next year… Well, I should say that I am already interested in joining the staff but I feel that I need to go there and meet everyone and see the base for myself before I commit to staffing it. That makes sense right…? Haha! If I do feel led to becoming a member of the staff it will be at least a year commitment, and not only will I be staffing the Earth Care Discipleship School, I will also taking leadership courses through the base as well.

So to kind of summarize all of this, I am going to finish out the summer here in Hatteras and then in October try and get to New Zealand to work on those projects on the base. I’m not sure how long I will be there for but I’m guessing as long as God wants me there. “My” tentative plan is to be there for a month or 2, and hopefully get a feeling for joining staff next year. Then somehow make it back to Cali for Christmas so I can spend it with my family. And if I decide return to New Zealand in March I will spend a good amount of the time I am back in the states spreading the word about what I’m doing and getting prayer and support. It’s going to be kind of a whirlwind of events and it’s going to take a good amount prayer and support for it to happen but as long as I am seeking out God first in all of this I have no worries. There will be specifics on how to pray for and ways to support me hopefully soon. But you are welcome to contact me at any time at Matt.Pollastrini@gmail.com.

I love and thank you all for taking the time to read this!

Prayers and Praise!!! Part 1

Well it’s been a little over a month now since I have been in Hatteras and I still love it. There were only a couple things that needed to happen for my stay here to work. One was finding a place to live.... and the other was to find work. And as you know, if you have read my other posts, I found a sweet place to stay that has been a huge blessing not to mention ridiculously fun! Then when it came time to find a job the Lord blessed me again! The second place I walked into hired me on the spot and I started that day!!!!! It’s a retail and souvenir shop at one of the boat marinas so it’s nothing fancy but all I really need right now. The Managers really like me and I happened to get a perfect schedule as well. I work 40 hrs a week Monday - Friday during the day and have nights and weekends off. I don't have to miss the set skate nights for the kids... any of the wed night covered dish dinners at church.... or any Sunday church services!!!! Praise Him!!!! There is also a bunch of Ukrainian exchange students that work there too and its awesome getting to talk to them and hear there stories and share mine about why the heck we are on this island!

One not so cool thing that has happened is my surfboard got stolen 2 weekends ago… : ( Along with 2 boards out of my friends car. I had surfed some really fun waves that Saturday evening then Sunday before church Charlie, one of the guys I live with, went to go pick up some grape juice for communion and realized the boards in his car were gone. He ran upstairs and asked me if I had my board in my truck last night, it was, so I ran downstairs and saw that it was missing from inside my camper shell. Its definitely a bummer, especially since I had done a lot of the work in making it, but at the end of the day its just a surfboard and I’m glad he/she didn’t take anything of greater value to me.

I also have a prayer request that may put some people on the spot but I definitely feel I need to share this with everyone to get some serious prayer power going!

My family has been pretty plagued with divorce throughout the years and after recent talks with my Dad I have come to find out that his marriage with my step Mom of 10+ years is very close to being over as well. They have had a very tough couple of years especially last year with my dad getting badly injured on a job site and then right on the heels of that he found out that he has cancer. Those are some really tough things to go through and it has definitely taken its toll on their marriage. I pray for healing of their hearts, and that they would earnestly fight for each other and rebuke the spirit that is telling them its over, that it can’t be fixed. That is a lie. By our own efforts, sure its impossible, and I know words are a lot easier said than put into but in Matthew 19:26 Jesus says, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

I truly believe that and I know my Dad and step mom do to! But they are broken and hurt and out of hope. I ask that all who read this will pray for them with me. Also if you know of other situations like this I hope this inspires you to pray for them as well!!!

Sunday Funday!!

Unfortunately there aren't any pictures to go with this one so I hope your Imaginations can make up for it. It’s always hard to tell when I should bring my camera on adventures because they mostly involve water... (Anyone wanna donate a water housing for my camera... anyone........ Bueller...?) Anyway, so Sunday started off great with church, and since my first Sunday here I have been playing hand drums with the worship team, which has been really fun! Then after church a bunch of us were trying to decide what to do... The waves weren't happening on the ocean side so we decided to have some fun in the sound. We took 2 jet skis and a little boat filled with surfboards and went hunting for ferryboat wake! Ferryboat wake you ask...? Well there is an island to south of us which the only way to get on it with your car is by ferry and about every 20-30 min a ferryboat makes its way through the sound to and from the other island. One of the local guys noticed that at the right tide the ferryboat wake hits a shallow shoal and creates a breaking wave. So we posted up where we thought the best place was to catch a wave a waited till the next ferry came along. The wave it creates is definitely small so the first 2 guys grabbed the long boards and when the ferry made its way to us we all started shouting for our 2 friends as they paddled to try and catch the wave. Even the people on the ferry started cheering!! They both were able to stand up but one of them wasn't in the right spot and ended up falling off, but the other one ended up getting close to a 75-yard wave though! He was pulling out all the tricks! The dying cockroach, reverse dying cockroach, and the coffin! It was pretty amazing! The next ferry made its way to us but it must have not taken the same path because the wake didn't really turn into a breaking wave like the other one had. After the second ferry came by, an executive decision was made to go back to shore because we were drawing a lot of attention to what we were doing. And I'm pretty sure what we were doing was illegal. So we went back to the docks and loaded everything onto a bigger boat that Jerry uses to fly his parasails with, and the rest of the afternoon we Wurfed and tubed behind the parasail boat. Oh and what I call Wurfing the guys out here call Scurfing... basically similar to wakeboarding but you are on a surfboard instead and the rope is a whole lot shorter. That kept us busy for a while then we decided to go back to the skate park and grill up some burgers for dinner! And man was that satisfying after a long day on the boat and in the sun. To end the night we decided to all share our testimonies and basically share our story of how we ended up living at the skate park for the summer. You know... Just to get to know each other a little better I guess.

It’s sort of funny but also sad how easily we can live around people such as co-workers, roommates, extended family, etc... And share daily activities with them but know very little about who they are, what they believe, what they want to do in life, and the experiences they have had. Even with the guys living at the park it was easy to get along with them just because of skating, surfing, and ping pong... haha! It could have easily stayed on that surface level because its light, and fun, but when working as a team and trying to achieve a certain goal I think it is important to get to know each other and strengthen the friendships as much as possible.

I am challenging myself and everyone out there to be a little more intentional with the people you are around everyday. You never know who might inspire you or whom you might even inspire. It doesn't have to be some grand inspirational story that you share, but it could just be as simple as someone going through the same situation as you, or has come out of the same situation you are in and has encouragement or suggestions to steer you in the right direction. Or maybe not even having anything in common but just the fact of someone showing interest in their life on more than a surface level might make a difference. I believe everyone wants to be noticed on some sort of level. Somehow we as a people have accepted a way of life that often that closes other people off from knowing how we really are. Or thinking people don’t really care anyway. Which is often true sadly. I’m guilty of it for sure. But what is cool is that we are all living life together whether we like it or not… haha, and it would be a shame for us to not share the journey with each other and work and live in community. I think it brings about a peace that this world definitely needs. I have definitely noticed a difference in myself lately now that I have started talking to more people whenever I get the chance. It is a challenge for sure because I’m not the most talkative person in the world and can kind be closed off in my own world, but I just try to not miss an opportunity when it comes up!

Wow I don’t know how I got from Sunday Funday to here but I like it and I guess I needed to say it… I hope it made some sort of sense!

Love you all!