For those of you who haven’t studied up on New Zealand
terms….tramping = hiking in the States! Our team was assigned to hike The Hillary
Trail (named after Edmund Hillary, the first to climb Mt. Everest) as our
ministry. As we hike and camp we
simply live and share our faith with those around us! We found out today, after hiking for the first week and a
half that Hillary actually used these mountains to train for hiking Everest!
LOL So, we, as inexperienced hikers, have been climbing (to say the least) what
has not been the easiest terrain.
It has not been easy…but we have learned soo much about each other,
about our limits, and about what God can do when you trust Him.
We thought that to share the love of Christ on this trail
sounded simple enough, but we it came down to it, it was more difficult than we
originally thought! We didn’t really see anybody for more than 5 minutes for
the first week! Just within the
last few days have we actually spent time with people at campsites and gotten
to share a little bit of prayer and the gospel with them. However, we have now gotten the
INCREDIBLE opportunity to stay at a Christian camp and minister to tons of
Junior Surfers who are in NZ for this huge Surf competition! It is such a wonderful opportunity and
please be praying for us as we talk to these teens and serve them by cleaning
up after meal times. This
opportunity just fell into our laps and I know that God has something great
planned!
(This is actually at Piha beach, the same beach where the competition will take place!)
This is just a short blog, but there will be more up very
soon!
Just a fun story to leave you with: We have been without showers for the
last 10 days, so we have become pretty desperate for any kind of “getting
clean” that we can find as you can imagine! We arrived at a creek near our campsite where a lot of cars
park to go to the beach,which is about 5 minutes away. We decide that it is time to clean up a
little bit in the river after a full days hike in the marshes and beach….so we
jump in with our shampoo and soap and begin lathering up! Just as the suds are in our hair and we
are really getting into it, about 5 people who were walking to the waterfall
nearby come over the bridge near where we are and just stop to look and TAKE
PICTURES of the crazy kids bathing in the river! It was a little bit embarrassing, but very funny at the same
time!…I guess just another day in the life of a World Racer! 😀
