Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Wow!  It’s already time to leave New Zealand after being here just for a few weeks and it’s not an easy farewell at all.  It’s been filled with many blessings of Launch Training Camp in Matamata, going to Waikanae here at El Rancho and see many kids come to Christ, five in my group, and learning about the epitomy of service from working in the kitchen with the hardest workers or getting outserved in love by the staff here. 

Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand have such a beautiful culture and we got to enter into that this month. From the moment we arrived in this land, they invited us in.  From off the bus, the women met us with beautiful songs that beckoned us into a welcoming celebration. They greeted us by pressing their noses against ours to show their total acceptance of our presence in their lands and lives.  It was awesome. We were the first visitors in this land to be invited to such a ceremony. And we get to experience it all over again for our farewell.  This time the men on our teams are building huge firepits, going to rivers to get things for the fire, the women are prepping the food to eat after a ceremony for us.  They told us that the food we’ll eat will have a delicious earthen flavor it really was.
 
 
 

We’ve said our goodbyes and we’re trying to get ourselves in the mindset to go; this place has just kind of felt like home now; it’s really hard.  We head our tomorrow early on an 11-hour bus ride to Auckland, stay the night in a church, and then take an early morning flight to Brisbane, Australia.  After being there for a couple of days we go farther up north to Oenpelli by a chartered flight into no man’s land (you can’t ever get there by car!).  We will be doing a lot of outreach, preaching, and other types of things in an area where Jesus isn’t know much, so please pray that there can be a lot of eyes opened! 

We’re talking no internet, one pay phone per town, a days walk in between town, and working with aboriginees who’ve not heard much of the gospel at all.  Our team saw pictures online of fields, crocodiles, and tiny shops.  Food costs over 300% more in these towns than the bigger cities, we with our daily budget of $3.25 a piece, we’ll have to bring most of it with us.  We’re told we’ll be eating out of cans and cooking over open fire, and this may be the month where my “comfort” limits are pushed.  To be honest, I’m so ready for them to be, and to see what can really get in my way of my love for the people we minister too.

Really? Who thought we’d be doing all this in Australia after getting spoiled in New Zealand?  I was expecting this to start a month later in the Philippines. 

You may not being hearing from us at all over the next month.  If we do get any internet I promise to put up a blog, but if not, then know that God’s work is done and I ask for your all’s prayer for safety and a just God to work in ways that the community has never seen!

I do believe I will be able to post another one soon though in a couple of days because to be honest, we’ve had an incredible goodbye here at El Rancho and my mind is racing with thoughts.  Hopefully that bus ride I will be able to let them down in clear thoughts for everyone.