For the past week my team and I have been in Waikanae, NZ at a conference called “New Wine”. It is a conference for all ages. There are families, singles, youth, young children, and even little babies coming here to worship with other believers and 
learn new things to further God’s kingdom. New Wine’s mission is to equip churches to see Jesus’ kingdom grow. At this conference I along with 2 other team members were on the steward team. We served by helping with set-up, parking cars (telling people where to park), serving at tea time, helping with the Kid Zone, etc. Basically anything they asked we tried to do with a smile on our face. We were able to meet and talk to some really amazing people. I hope that God has blessed them as much as they blessed us. (Side Note: I feel like all I have done this month is eat, eat, and eat. We have been very blessed with plenty of food, good food! There are six eating times a day: breakfast at 8:00; morning tea at 10:30; lunch at 12:00; afternoon tea around 3:00; dinner at 5:30; and supper (night tea) around 8:30.)
During New Wine we stayed at a camp site called El Rancho in Wiakanae close to Wellington. It is a place that is open all year and has different camps and conferences that are held throughout the year. The staff at El Rancho was amazing, very friendly, very helpful, and so much fun to be around. There were 5 WR teams at this location. Three teams from “M” squad were working
for El Rancho and were there the whole month and then two teams (JSL (my team) and 12:18) from “N” squad worked for New Wine. We all stayed in tents on the camp grounds, but were very blessed to have access to FREE internet, have hot showers, and access to FREE laundry. I am getting use to tent life and actually like having my own space to sleep at night and not worrying about mixing my stuff with others.
On Monday night we rode a bus from Waikanae to Auckland overnight. The bus picked us up at 9:30pm and we arrived in Auckland at 7:00am. When we arrived on Tuesday morning we were able to shower and keep our big packs at a hostel for the day. We met a guy named Matt at Soul Survivor and his parents owned the hostel and allowed us to hang out there for free! PTL!! It was so nice to have a day to run around Auckland and explore. Most of us ended up going bungee jumping off the Auckland Harbor Bridge. It is a 40m jump head first into the ocean below. They asked you before you jumped if you wanted to touch the water. I said yes and ended up getting dunked waist deep. The only thing they didn’t tell you was to close your mouth. I drank a lot of salt water. Oops! Then Tuesday evening we went to the airport to spend the night. I only slept about 1.5 hours and then it was time to get up, check-in, and head to Brisbane, Australia. We left Auckland at 7:30am and arrive in Brisbane at 7:30am after a 3 hour flight. (I am now +15 hours ahead of Oklahoma time.)
We are currently staying at a YWAM base outside of Brisbane. We will be here until February 1st which is when we will fly to Cairns and then will drive to Mareeba to do ministry for the next month. I am very excited for this month and can’t believe that we are already through with month 1.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and words of encouragement.
