(me wrestling smeagel)
We are in Waikanae, NZ on a Christian camp called El Rancho after an eleven hour trip from Matamata. It’s about an hour northeast of Wellington, the capital near the coast. Upon arriving here they gave us a traditional welcoming ceremony of the Maori people, with greetings that would seem strange to Americans but so neat. For instance, when men great, they put their foreheads and noses together and take a deep breathe. For the first time, it was strange but I had gotten pretty comfortable to doing it after about doing it ten times in two minutes! In the ceremony men sit in front of women and walk in front of them, not because of gender or rank, but of chivalry and protection. This land is of two people; Maori (who landed here two hundred years ago as aboriginies and speak in a different language) and Kiwi (who are mostly the white people that talk in a mix of English/Aussie accents).There is a summer camp for kids happening here and this week the leadership staff (Rob, Rodney, Ruth, and Sam) was greatly concerned about not having enough counselors for the week. They were in great prayer and heard about our teams coming to New Zealand and took the opportunity and they won’t stop telling us how much of an answer to prayer it’s been and they have greatly blessed us. This week much of our squadmates have been counselors, spending time with 10-12 year old boys and girls, having worship with them, staying with them at night, and getting to do awesome activities with them. We are really bonding with the Kiwi’s leadership at camp and have had incredible worship together; so awesome being from across the world but one God. Known as “The Americans”. they ask us a lot about America and we trade different words and tones with everyone.
“My dad sells, buys, and uses drugs,” he said in a nonchalant tone. “My mother also uses drugs, but she usually uses a tube and needle because it’s faster than smoking it,” he continued. These are the kids we have and conversation I had with one of them the first night I was in camp from my group. Most of our camp kids are government funded and come from rough homes, just the same in America everywhere. But, these are the kids God has given us for this week to love them like Jesus and hopefully many will come to know. It’s normal for them, just like the boy I talked to that said it like it was nothing. My heart quickly broke and I didn’t know what to say.
(our camp)
I have seven boys who are all from various backgrounds and if you get this in plenty of time I ask for your prayer for them by name: Dylan, Robbie, Cain, Matthew, Devon, Joseph, and Datu. These boys are awesome and have been great to get to know, even though they were kind of tough the first night, but they have attached and love having and American leader. After a couple of days of camp, allowing them to hear parts of the gospel from the teachers in worship, and allowing the seed to settle a bit, I hope to be able to sit down with our other team members and share the gospel in a much more focused way and let God do His work. It’s so not about us. God has blessed us already and seeing these kids become our friends, love our accents is funny, and hopefully seeing them become children of God through Christ will make the lack of sleep and busyness much rewarding.
My second prayer request is that a lot of team members are a little under the weather, mostly sinus soreness. I had a fever last night but it is gone now, but I believe it’s just a change in the environment (vegetation, air, everything). Be in prayer that we feel better because we know it’s just the enemy that want to distract us and limit us from being fully invested in these kids. I will continue in a couple of days and hope to tell you what this week ends like!!
(snow topped volcanic peaks on the way to our ministry site in warm weather)
