We've been busy!

We had a wonderful Labour day holiday last weekend. We got to do some sight-seeing, figure eights/driving down the beach, and spending quality time together - all of which we loved dearly! Many apologies for no blog entries this week however, you will soon understand!

Tomorrow (Nov. 1st) we will be holding a Narnia Ball for the youth in the Northland area. We'll have about 25o teenagers along for a fun & romantic evening of dancing. Just think of it as we're throwing a Prom. 

So this week we have been busy with ticket sales, making Narnia props, painting cardboard castles, cutting hundreds of snowflakes, stringing all the snowflakes, getting prizes, food, trees, fairy lights etc... A fantastic evening it will be! We will start our set-up at the venue bright and early on the morning right up until the Ball begins at 8pm. It will certainly be a long day of being on our feet and running around; so please pray for the team, that extra help will arrive, and for the fun and safety of all the teens coming out and driving in from afar. (Pictures will be posted over the weekend).

After a very short weekend: this is what we have upcoming - 

- work next week & Summer harvest camp preparations/building next weekend

- Next Sunday (Nov 9th) LeeAnn's Parents arrive for 2 weeks.  We're excited about seeing them, and spending some time showing them this Beautiful Country side.

- The day we drop LeeAnn's parents at the airport, we head off to a 3 day conference.

- When the conference ends we go back to the Airport to pick up Art & Lois Deyo, our YFC Pastoral Care team. We'll get to spend 3 great days with them...

- Then 2 days after they leave we're off to Fiji for the Safari Youth Camp. When we return from there we'll have 2 weeks before Christmas starts; then the day after Christmas we've got the Biggest camp all Year - Summer Harvest!

- After Summer Harvest (literally 2 days) we go on Holiday and will tour to the South Island and visit YFC's all down NZ on our trip to tour south.

** Shew.... now, that's a busy schedule!!  

HALLOWEEN: So Aside of our lifestyles, what have you been up too? Did you dress up for Halloween? Please send us pictures of you or your family during the holidays so we can share in your memories!!

Halloween came & went here. New Zealand doesn't really celebrate halloween like the States do. Trick-or-treating seems rare, and the stores hardly advertise or have costumes/candy out. We didn't even know it was halloween until we looked at the calendar - that's how "little" halloween is over here. 

As a matter of fact - Today when we were at the store there was a little 4 yr old asking her mum "What is Halloween" - her mum replied "It's an American holiday where people dress up in funny costumes."

CHRISTMAS: Christmas decorations are out and beginning to fill the air; but believing Christmas is around the corner is very hard for us. It's hard to "Get in the Christmas spirit" and feel like it's almost Christmas when the isles of stores are flooded with beach toys, pool towels, sun block, and jandles. (Sandals) It's just not the same. We're so use to the cold to indicate the holidays are coming, along with the thought of snow, hot chocolate, and being around your fire with your warm fluffy socks. With the Bathing suits and sunblock out, the only holiday I can seem to think of is 4th of July. Weird. It will certainly be fun to have a summer christmas, but then also weird because it won't feel the same. We're hoping that Christmas doesn't just come and go without us having a little bit of that "Christmas feeling". It has been very hard to get in that mind-set, but we still have 2 months to do it!!

Learning to Surf

In our free time we are learning a New Hobby... Surfing! It's so great to live so close to the beaches. We can drive to the West coast for bigger & better waves, or hit up the east coast just 20 minutes from our house. Learning to surf has been so much fun! We are trying to learn some basics by just messing around on our own, but soon, we'll be joined by some Whangarei teenagers! So far, the toughest and most annoying part is trying not to get tangled in the leg strap. 

Although we have been in the water, please don't get me wrong because the waters here are freezing! I absolutely LOVE my wetsuit, it certainly keeps be warm. However, when I get out of the water my legs and arms are generally beat red and numb from the cold water. But it's so worth it; because learning to surf is so much fun! The challenge is great and the sense of accomplishment from climbing from your stomach, to knees, and eventually to your feet is even better. If you ever have an opportunity to learn to surf, take it! 

Holiday Weekend!

It's Labour Day weekend here in NZ. We're excited to spend a weekend off exploring more of God's wonderful creation - hopefully minus all the forecasted rain. We've got Monday off, so we're pretty keen to hit the beach, go for a fish, ride our bikes, and explore more of this beautiful land!!

Milking a cow

This was my first experience getting to milk a cow. Friends of ours: Nate & Deb, live on a farm as Nate farms cows for a living. They recently invited us to come out one day and experience some milking first hand. I must say it was a smelly job. There was poo EVERYWHERE! Notice that we wore coveralls. It was a fun experience. Preston and I got to suction the cow utters (per the pictures). It was like a vacuum that just swooped up on the cow's utters. haha. Farming is big in New Zealand, and so we couldn't go home without the first hand experience. When it comes time to sheep shearing, we will get to partake in that as well. :) What fun!

Pictures from Camp

Spring Breakaway Camp - Lake Taupo

Camp was amazing. We were down in Lake Taupo about 7 hours away for 5 days of learning, listening, fun, and entertainment. The camp centered around the theme of Narnia as we presented kids with the Gospel in a way they could relate to and understand. There were many kids asking questions about Christ, and some made decisions to change their lifestyles, and to live for God; they accepted Christ in their lives for the first time and looked for guidance on how have a good walk of faith. Isn't God Amazing!??

Amongst the program and "Solid Rock" time we had learning about Christ and what it means to be a Christian - we also embarked on some adventure activities: high ropes, mini bikes, archery, slug guns, swimming pool, team building exercises, and a day at the snow for some tubing!!

(pictured above: Taylor, MaryAnn, Becks, and Emily experience "Snow from the sky" for the 1st time! - At the visitors center on the way up to the Mountain to tube!!)

The snow was very cold. With the wind chill is was just under -2 degrees Celsius. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, sorry! It was very fun to see the kids in the snow, many experience it for the first time in their lives. One girl in my cabin thought I was nuts when I mentioned about having a waterproof layer on top of their clothes. She thought the snow was dry - a cold dry powder. She had no clue it was basically a bunch of ice. :) What fun it was to share in that experience with them.

Below: The tube chain...

Preston and I are the last two on the tubes. (3 tubes, 6 people)

We will come back!

As some may think we have been sucked into some unknown part of the earth; they are halfway right. We are been busy beyond imagination preparing for our charity auction, pulling all nighters at the office, and wearing the soles in our shoes - but it's finally here! The auction is this evening... and after that we can begin to get back to a normal life for a few days before more craziness begins (round #2). We will certainly update the blog this weekend with all that has been going on - camp, auction etc... Bur for now we're running on fumes of sleep so we can't think to type anyway. Check back soon... and Have a great weekend!!

Back from Camp!

We just got back from a week running a holiday camp for 60 middle schoolers and taking them snow tubing one day. It was fun to see students experience snow for the first time in their lives, but please know that taking 60 middle schoolers tubing on the snow can be very dangerous!!! The students had a blast, but then upon leaving one tube ran into another causing one of our German YFC leaders to come close to breaking her neck. When I got news that she had to get air-lifted from one hospital to another I decided snow tubing wasn't such a good thing to do with middle schoolers. God was very faithful in her healing and it turns out she is recovering well; her injury wasn't as bad as it could have been!
Anyway, camp was great, we were simply blessed with the relationships that were built up and the decisions that students made to follow Christ. Reaching out to student here takes a while, and is a very slow process.
Seeing the impact we have had on the students here has been incredible - it has taken a while to really become accepted by them, but through camp we've finally reached a breaking point with some of the toughest kids. Praise God!!!

- more to come, and pictures to follow!!

Last Club For The Term

Our dear sweet Pastoral Care friends from YFC (Ron & Ruth) recently sent us a little taste from Home - everything needed for a good ole American S'more! After a long week of work, we settled down in from of the fire and had ourselves a very special treat! 

Preston has enjoyed the scenery and wildlife. We very often see new plants, flowers, birds, animals etc... when we are out and about. This is a recent picture from a nearby Park and one of the trees in the park. (I think he looks like Oscar the Grouch) 

What do you think?

On our last club night for this term we took the students to visit a HUGE camper/truck of friends of ours. This camper is actually the home of Ernie, Michelle, and their four wonderful children. They travel around with a team (MMM) as missionaries and do renovation and painting projects around NZ. Ernie leads the team that has been at our offices the past 2 weeks renovating/painting our building. We will surely miss them when they leave!  Anyway, back to club night: This camper has a garage which holds their mini-van, 4 bunk beds for the kids, and a queen bed for Ernie & Michelle, and all the other

 fixings of a house etc.. The kids were introduced to a new lifestyle - one of being home-schooled, always on the road, living in a camper, and not having the same friends every week. The learned of how God calls people do different missions and opportunities in life and what it means to have faith and discernment. All the kids said they would never be able to "survive" with the lifestyle of living in a camper, not having their friends, and being home-schooled, but they seemed very open to wanting to know more about God and what it means to have faith. (Doors are opening!!!!) and we topped off the evening with some Hot Chips (french fries) in the park. 

Club is on a break while the student are on School Holiday, so in the meantime we are running a holiday camp. We'll resume Rock Solid nights in 3 weeks. Pictured below are all the students in the "Garage" of Ernie's truck/camper.

Below: Students chowing down on Hot Chips & tomato Sauce in the Park. (A Kiwi Favorite)

I Love Weekends

I Love the weekends because we get to go out and explore New Zealand, immerse ourselves in a new culture and try new things. I am very excited about this weekend because new things are certainly in store for us.

We are going to experience a Jazz festival in town one day, then Sunday some friends from our small group (Nathan & Deb) are going to teach us to Surf and then give us a tour of farming. Nathan is into farming and one thing I have always wanted to do is to Milk a Cow! So guess what we get to do on Sunday? Yep! Milk cows! Nathan is going to give us a tour of the farm he works out, explain all the machinery and what he does, and let us have some first hand experiences of being a farmer.   Everything from herding & feeding the babies, to Cow Poo  :)

Monday we head out to our first camp - it's Spring Breakaway time! Please pray for our long travels with the students as we head south, and for the deeper relationships that are bound to form. Watch for more of our camp experiences write-ups soon!