While we’ve been spending a lot of time working so far this month, we have had a couple of great opportunities to explore Tauranga. First, we had an opportunity to spend a day at the beach. Denise hung out on the beach with most of our squad mates, while I hiked up Mt. Maunganui. The view at the top was AMAZING! The hike takes only about 30 minutes, but it is pretty steep. But wow, was it worth it! The mountain is at the end of a peninsula, so you can see the beach, the city, and far out into the ocean. Everything is so beautiful in New Zealand, but especially in Tauranga. One of our leaders described it as the colors being more intense here. The greens are greener, the blues are bluer…it’s so true! The other great thing is that since it rains at least a little bit every other day or so, the clouds are always extremely intense. They feel like they are right over your head; they’re so GORGEOUS!
On a separate day, we were blessed with another great opportunity to explore New Zealand. After we finished painting the church, a couple of the local guys took us to an INCREDIBLE waterfall! It was just a short hike down to the falls, which were hidden away enough that there were only a couple other people there. Most of the members of our group went swimming and cliff jumping. Denise took pictures, and I went on a short hike with Alisa, one of my teammates. There were several hiking paths available, each named after a certain country or continent. We crossed over small suspension bridges, underneath fallen trees, and up stairs overgrown with moss; I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie! When we reached the end of each of the paths, we found an awesome surprise. There were boxes, labeled with the county/continent of their corresponding path. Inside, they contained bibles and information about what that region of the world needs prayer for, as well as the major spiritual issues they are contending with. This was such a blessing, and I can’t help but think that God had it all planned. Up until then, we had been really unsure what we might be doing as missionaries in some of these countries, but finding these boxes was like having first-hand, spiritual cliff’s notes about each place. It was exactly what we needed…God is so good, and He always provides!
Pictures to come!
