A New Blog

This message marks a change in my blog thus far.  Previous to this I had this blog to keep people updated on what I was doing in New Hampshire while I interned and was on staff with Streams Ministries.  Now the purpose of this blog is just for to put up what ever I please, maybe reflections, things God is speaking to me, things I think warrant thought, whatever!

Time will tell if I keep updating this so don't hold your breath!


-Dustin

I'm back?!

Yeah I know it's been a while, this really isn't going to be much of a post, I'm more writing this to let you know not to hold your breathe.

I've been so busy as of late on staff here at Streams Academy, there is always a lot going on and in my spare time, I like to relax, read and not think about what I have to think about all the time, so hence, I end up not writing much here.

But just so you know. God is in the heavens and he does as he wishes. (Psalm 115:3) It's not always what I would choose for myself, and sometimes it's almost scary because I start asking, hmmm, how come I need to know some of this stuff? What does he really have planned for me?

Well, the best things don't come easy and I don't intend to settle, so maybe I'm resigning myself to a life of difficulty, but I'd rather pay for it on the front-end personally.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sound as if I'm complaining, I wouldn't trade what God has for me for anything, even though I don't know really what that is, I get glimpses every now and then. That for me is good enough, it's enough for me to know that He knows what He's doing. As long as that's still true, I'll be ok with it.

What I would appreciate in this season is your prayers, specifically for wisdom, I desire to get everything I can out of this season, I don't want anything to happen unnecessarily, I'd like the wisdom to see what God is doing so I can partner with that.

Thanks for reading, I still get people asking me when am I going to update this, I got to admit, the amount of people who've read this still surprises me, I never thought that many people besides my family would read this, but well, here you are! I can't promise many new updates anytime soon, but you never do know now do you?

What is new is I added links to testimonies from my intern year in Salem, that's 2006-2007, there are two MP3's you can download, look for those on the right!

Until later...

Animal Magnetism

So I've seen a lot of animals lately.

Pretty unremarkable maybe. But I'm going to share the tally with you anyways.

In the last month, I've seen:

---

4 Deer


1 Fisher Cat


2 Skunk


1 Great Horned Owl


1 Porcupine


1,000,000 Wild Turkeys

---

I gotta say, it's pretty exciting chasing skunks, running after porcupines, scaring wild turkeys and pursuing fisher cats. It kind of sounds like I may be turning into a dog or something though, I think maybe in the future I'll try to use more discretion in the animals I'm chasing...



Hmm... Well there really is a lot new, but not much that I want to type about right now. We are finishing up our Salem outreach today. We'll be leaving soon for Haunted Happenings, the final day, Halloween! It will be crazy busy, I'll try to update with some pictures after, we've just been so crazy busy that when I do have a moment I haven't felt like doing this!


I will however throw up a picture and a video from my adventure with Matt Stinton to Boston to see Of Montreal in concert. Yes it was weird, but it was also fun.


Picture: Matt and I on the train


Picture: Oh Look! A guy with wings...


Picture: Slumber Party!


Video: A Wee Short Clip

----------------
Now playing: Luke Temple - Family Vacation

A few pictures to catch up on

As promised here are some extra pictures from last week/weekend...

Picture: Here's Elisa in Salem, MA by the Atlantic ocean taking a picture of herself.


Picture: Some of the interns at The Gathering Church


Picture: Here I am.


Picture: Here be Dan.


Picture: Noah(Massachusetts) eating some pizza(well, not in this picture, but...)


Picture: Here I am, with my Scottish mentor, being as Scottish as I can muster



----------------
Now playing: Handsome Furs - Sing! Captain

Preparing for Salem

Last weekend we all packed up and headed out to Salem for training before Haunted Happenings this halloween.

It was a lot of fun and really good as well. As a special bonus treat for you all, we got all technological here and Tom (Los Angeles) recorded the session with Pastor Phil as he talked about what a pagan actually was, how to relate to them and everything in between. The recording isn't the best but hopefully when I have time to improve it I will post a new one. Until then, you can find this audio file here and on the right side of my blog where I'll post any other audio recordings that I make.

Check out Phil Wyman's blog at http://squarenomore.blogspot.com/

I'll throw up some pictures here later but I wanted to toss up this file for anyone who's interested. It's almost 2 hours long but it's gold!

The Whooping of Mt. Kearsearge

It's true, I took Mt. Kearsearge down. Well, I didn't do it alone. Most of the interns and staff came as well.

In fact, I took a group picture, minus myself because I took the picture of course.

Picture: The group, I'm too lazy to write all the names...

Mt. Kearsearge is a pretty big mountain in these areas but back home we know this kind of thing as a large hill. It was not a long hike maybe 20 minutes up and a 7 minute run down for me, but it's a ton of fun doing something that light and hanging out at the top. There is an amazing 360 degree view especially if you go up into the tower they have there.


Picture: If you really squint you can see Jess Mott up there

Thought I'd throw up a few pictures from the hike, other than that, it was a free weekend so we did a lot of relaxing and hanging out with each other. All in all, good clean fun!


Picture: Elisa and I in the windy tower!


Picture: Matthew M(California) climbing the tower


Picture: Sharon(South Carolina), Ali(Connecticut), Jessica H(Michigan) and Charles(Colorado) taking a breather at the top

But wait! That's not all! Just when you thought this blog post couldn't get any better I pull out amazing news like this. I know you all are dying to get into the excitement of my life so I thought I'd share with you one of the most exciting things that's happened to me tonight.

I finally got around to pulling out a big 'ole food dryer that was left here. So as I write this, unspeakably delightful delicacies are rapidly becoming devoid of all moisture while locking in the deliciously delectable flavours that will prove to be a potent prescription of palatable pleasure that I imagine to be hardly sustainable by myself.


Picture: Here I am testing an unfinished apple.


----------------
Now playing: M. Ward - Sad, Sad Song

Update-O-Rama

All the interns arrived on Saturday, well, all save my sister Elisa that is. You can keep her in your prayers as she has been having difficulty with customs people getting her Visa but she'll be here soon enough!

Everyone has been getting adjusted, most are finished unpacking and setting up their rooms and we've even started our first classes! Scott Evelyn started teaching the ISD 101 class (The Art of Hearing God) Monday morning and has been doing that every morning thus far. "How come you aren't there?" you may be asking. Well let me tell you. Today is my morning off which has been amazing thus far. It's so nice to get a break and to be able to sleep in a little bit and to be able to find some time to update you all!

It's definitely different being in leadership this year as opposed to an intern last year. I haven't worked out exactly the nature of all the differences but it's definitely more tiring! I really am finding it an amazing exercise in being in tune with God all the time. I am constantly asking God what He's doing, what's going on, for insight, wisdom and everything in between! It's tiring but so rewarding and I've really noticed personal growth in my perceptions of things as I try to ask God to be always revealing His will in every situation that comes up.

I think I'm starting to have a glimpse of what Jesus meant when he said, "I only do what I see my Father doing.". I'm painfully aware of when I don't do what I'm supposed to, but I'm starting to see how I can make God a constant part of my day, how I can walk in his will all the time. There's a big difference between remembering to ask God what to do and then making an adjustment in your walk/day/attitude/decision than trying to be sensitive and aware to what God is doing constantly.

It's a shift that I cannot explain, I think it's kind of by revelation that we can learn to walk in it. All I know is that it's exciting, I see God move more and it can be tiring.

Scott Evelyn said during the 101 class this week that, "We cannot become more spiritual, but we can become less fleshly.", I feel like that kind of is a summary of what God and I are doing lately and it's been a lot of work to try and continually walk in the spirit, it's much easier to do things the way I think they should be done. It's a constant battle, during the day when I feel myself slipping into the way I think things should be done and into my own perceptions, I have to consistently ask God to align myself with His will and kingdom plans for myself and for everyone around me.

It's been good though and I would really appreciate your prayers for continued and greater discernment, wisdom and understanding.



Other than that, things are going pretty good, I still don't have any pictures really, I'll try to work on that, soon hopefully I'll get a picture with all the interns on it so you can picture them and pray for them as well!

I also have an address for all you people out there, I know you are all dying to send me care packages, well friends, fret no more because below is my mailing address!

Dustin Zupancic
88 Main St.
New London, NH
03257


Until later, bless you all a whole bunch!




----------------
Now playing: Battles - Race In

A New Season

It's about time isn't it? I've been gone to New Hampshire a little over a week and I haven't had the consideration to write a blog yet. Well that all changes now! At least for now. We've been crazy busy here in the little hamlet of New London as we are preparing for interns coming, mostly on Saturday, but one today and then Elisa tomorrow!

Dan (Scotland) and I were up to 12:30 am last night cleaning at one of our new properties that we are moving into tomorrow. There's a lot of work to be done and even more that is done but it's been fun working with the amazing team of staff we have down here.

Sorry no pictures yet, but hopefully soon I'll throw some up.

The weather here has been pretty lousy, the only warm weather we got was really muggy heat, and I hate muggy heat. Other then that it's been typical BC weather here, rain, in a whole variety of ways, drizzles, deluges, sprinkles and showers. At least it's not boring.

When I first arrived we basically jumped right into it. We had some leadership training meetings with John Paul Jackson, Patty Mapes and Scott Evelyn, hopefully later I can throw up some good quotes for you all to ponder.

I gotta get going, work will be starting soon, but I just want you all to know that I am, in fact, not dead. I kind of doubt I'll be able to update this very much over the next week as I will be really busy still. But I'll try. No promises, I mean come on, get off my back man!