Tauranga, which is on the northeast coast, about an hour from where
we were staying near Matamata. We were able to hike a mountain and to
swim in the ocean. I did both! The hike was good and challenging. My
legs were sore, but the view was definitely worth it! The ocean was
beautiful and the water was crystal clear and cold but still fun for
swimming and jumping off the rocks!
bus and a total traveling time of about 12 hours, my team arrived in
Wellington, which is the capital city of New Zealand. We are actually
in Silver Stream (suburb) working with LifeSwitch church. Brenden,
our contact and the children’s minister at the church, is awesome! The church is actually located on a retreat
area, so we have a cabin to stay in with beds, hot water, kitchen,
washer/dryer and plenty of room. We are definitely spoiled but loving
it! We know in a few months when we’re sweating and dirty in our
tents that we’ll look back on this time with much gratitude.
United States other than driving on the opposite side of the road.
That is still hard to get used to. The scenery is amazing though. It
was fun to see more of the diverse countryside on our bus trip
yesterday.
and that was an experience. We’ve got to learn how much food seven
people will go through in a week. Tonight we made tacos and guacamole
for dinner. It was delicious! They also have a flavor of ice cream
here called Hokey Pokey. It’s amazing! We realized we can eat 2
liters of ice cream between all of us in one sitting!
So back to our ministry – today was
planning day. Brenden discussed with us what he’d like to do and we
all put in our ideas. We’re helping the church reach families in the
area. They’ve already been ministering to most of their children
through camps and other programs, so now we are going to help
minister to the families and let them know that church can be
relevant and fun. We are making flyers to deliver, then we’ll do home
visits and offer to help around their house with cleaning or yard
work just to share the love of God. After that we plan to have a BBQ
at a park and a movie night at the church to begin forming
relationships. Brenden is good about looking ahead and making goals
so we can measure the success of our ideas and ways of reaching
people in the area. Please be praying that we can have a positive
impact on these families.
