The El Rancho camp is quiet.
750 Kiwis are gone, and it’s back down to our three teams and the El Rancho staff here.
There’s no doubt God taught a lot in the kitchen and the many stories I can share. It’s really hard to blog, oh the many things we could share. The moment ungratefulness was shown by a Christian, who needed to be reminded about what blessings we have in life, and once that was shared how he changed in a heartbeat. A lady name Vicki, who I met while checking name tags in the lines for food and got into incredible conversation about the World Race missions, and life. She herself went to Ukraine and Israel on mission trip and one night was willing to sit down in our team meeting and tells us the heart throbbing pains of Ukraine right now. I could tell you about the incredible desire I’ve been receiving to be broken and a new definition of serving for the kingdom of God, doing “dirty work” for people who have worked all day without much appreciation. I could also tell you about little Nathan who is partially blind and his sister Anne who have been so sweet and loved to meet Americans, he will break your heart with his smile. But I wanted to write about a couple of people who have been a blessing here and then tell you about our next ministry really quick.
Meet Rob (courtesy of Lana Waites/teamate)
Rob is a former pastor of churches who became a missionary/camp director here in New Zealand and is originally from California. He has taught me more of what the body of Christ is supposed to look
like in the past 3 weeks than I have learned in my entire life. We came
to El Rancho in hopes that we would bless the staff that works here and
the people that came through this camp. Hopefully we have done just
that. But, I never expected how much THEY would bless US.
From the moment we arrived, he has gone out of his way to put our needs
before his own. Rob has given over and beyond what we could have hoped
for. He has made us feel welcome, treated us like lifelong friends,
opened his home to us World Racers, been willing to talk about anything about relationship with Christ, shared his family
with us, encouraged us time and time again… the list is endless.
like in the past 3 weeks than I have learned in my entire life. We came
to El Rancho in hopes that we would bless the staff that works here and
the people that came through this camp. Hopefully we have done just
that. But, I never expected how much THEY would bless US.
From the moment we arrived, he has gone out of his way to put our needs
before his own. Rob has given over and beyond what we could have hoped
for. He has made us feel welcome, treated us like lifelong friends,
opened his home to us World Racers, been willing to talk about anything about relationship with Christ, shared his family
with us, encouraged us time and time again… the list is endless.
Meet Sam
if there ever was a person who I’ve seen work himself to death without ever complaining out load and doing it all for the Lord amidst chaos, this would be the man. Sam is from the UK who moved here, and is a worker at the camp. The last week I’ve seen him work his tail off getting ready for the New Wine Conference, sometimes getting too many demands put on him, and once done done work hard to get it all back together with us. But through all of that, he has been one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Today as him and I were riding in a truck to pick up some things in a field, I told Sam that we were so thankful for them and just how awesome he was working so hard. He said that he does it for the people and for the Lord, and he can’t complain with customers but only to God will he be honest. And He’s right, because I know God wants us to be honest with him about our feelings, welcomes our doubts, questions, and frustrations, but in the end wants us to know it will all be ok.
Sam, the El Rancho staff, and Rob’s family plus many others too many to mention have become a new family for us. They have taught us what leadership looks like; that’s it’s not about standing in front of people and say what God is but it’s mostly getting in the dirt and outpouring yourselves into others in love, whether you feel like it or not.
We only have a few days left in Australia and it’s crazy how fast time has flown! It’s been a different kind of ministry and honestly we’ve been spoiled, but it changes. Friday we leave El Rancho to take an eleven hour bus ride up to Auckland, stay the night on the floor at a church, and then we fly off to Brisbane, Australia!!! We will be there for a couple of days and then take a small flight off to Oenpelli, Australia. You may be thinking “where’s that?” Well we aren’t suprised, because it’s the northern part and our team is going by ourselves to work with an aboriginee group in the Outback of Australia. We have been informed that there’s no internet so I don’t think I’ll be able to blog for a month, but please leave comments. Our team is super excited about this, nervous about what we’ll see, but the ministry is going to be great. Apparently, there’s only a few missionaries, maybe only one or two before that’s been with these people, which means that we can be the first “Jesus” these people come in touch with.
For a map of it and information you can go here:
http://www.australianexplorer.com/maps/oenpelli.htm
I will write another blog in a couple of days before leaving but I hope everyone is blessed in Christ.
(Nathan, Anne, their dad)
(New Wine Conference) (Racers on the bus to Tauranga)
