Gone Again

So we have put up 3-4 posts in the past day or two so be sure to scroll down and read them all to catch up on things... and this is just a short note to let you know that we will be gone again. We are flying out to Nadi, Fiji early tomorrow morning; so unfortunately we wont be able to video chat or IM with any of you for thanksgiving. We will be helping to run a youth camp for Indian kids in Fiji, so please pray for our experience/impact there, and for safe travels. We will be returning on Dec. 9th (not the 8th as previously noted).  We will not have internet access, so we will be sure to answer emails and blog again when we return. Love!!

Our Thanksgiving

Well today we went to our Thanksgiving feast in Whangarei and boy was it wonderful. It was certainly more then we expected….
We had a wonderful thanksgiving with about 50 people (30 Americans and some Kiwis). There was heaps of food there: turkey, ham, stuffing, pumpkin pie, mac & cheese, sweet potato dishes, salads, green bean casserole, rolls, cauliflower, and so much more. Desserts were amazing…. We stuffed ourselves silly!
Some young girls came and played blue grass a little bit during dinner and then after dessert; and some children put on a small skit before dinner about thanksgiving and sang “Jehovah Jireh” it was so nice! – all of this was at a small local church. (The pastor is an American guy who found out about us through a Friend’s friend and invited us).
It was so much fun to meet other Americans, other American missionaries, and hear stories about why people/families came to Whangarei. Some are here for a short time, like us, and others are here for a bit longer. We made some great connections and are looking forward to the future friendships and relationships that will come out of those we met today. Our thanksgiving represented Tennessee (Auburn college), California, Miami, Seattle, & North Carolina. All in all it was a very pleasant evening; we were very thankful to spend our thanksgiving amongst heaps of people as we do back home. Although we didn’t spend thanksgiving with our own family; it helped us remember just how thankful we are. We certainly miss all of you back at home – We hope you all have a Yummy Thanksgiving and safe traveling. You are all in our thoughts and prayers; and are Very thankful to have you in our lives! Much Love!

A New Zealand Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving always brings memories full of family traditions, friends, smiles, lots of food and laughter. It will be the first year ever that we have been away from our families during the holiday and it is going to be quite different. Even though we might miss out on the family aspect, we are fortunate that we are not going to miss many of the other parts of Turkey Day. We were contacted the other day by a friend of a friend who live in Whangarei but are originally from California. They found out we were from America and contacted us to celebrate the holiday with them. We were extremely excited and thankful they contacted us and we can hardly wait until Thursday.... but it gets better. They have been in contact with two or three other American families and we are ALL going to get together to celebrate. It is going to be a pot luck type meal where every family is responsible to bring a different dish. We are going to have everything there from mashed potatoes and gravy, green been casserole, turkey, sweet potato casserole, off course pumpkin pie, and everything in between. We could never have prepared or afforded to prepare such an extravagant dinner and we are so thankful!! We are so excited and can hardly wait to celebrate Turkey Day!!! After all, not only do we get to celebrate a proper Thanksgiving but we actually get to celebrate before you guys!!!

Visiting with the Parents/Fockers

Visit with Mom & Dad
Well time has come and gone this month. We have had an incredible few weeks, and are getting ready to leave town again. My parents were here from Nov. 9-21st for two weeks of hanging out and touring. We celebrated an early Christmas with them - (got great presents, heaps of Kraft Mac & Cheese, and some delectable grape Jelly - which was all great fun; we also took my parents to a club night and Did some Rock Solid club stuff with them; then took them all over the Northland of NZ!!
We started out tent camping for 3 days and headed up North to the farthest point of NZ (Cape Reinga). There we saw the Cape Reinga Lighthouse, drove on 90-mile beach, and visited/sledded down some infamous sand dunes…
We saw heaps of sheep/cows and gorgeous rolling green hills all along the countryside. Stopping at various touring places along the way we also visited the Ancient Kauri Kingdom to adventure up the trunk of a Huge NZ Kauri tree. (There is this tree with a staircase carved out of the middle). We ate at some breath taking café’s that overlook the forest and ocean; talk about spectacular views!!! And did so much more…The second week they were in town we re-grouped at our home and packed everything for the road. We drove 2 hours to Auckland to drop our little car off and pick up our rental van (Spaceship). We then took off for some of the three top tourist towns: Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorura & Taupo. We saw mud bubbling up from the earth at Hells gate geothermal reserve, mud volcanoes, sulfur pools, and smelt an awful smell of sulfur smoke in Rotorura and at the park. 

We visited a Maori Cultural performance where Preston and I both were taken up on stage in front of 200 people to do their “Native” Maori dance, experienced luge rides down a mountain on little plastic carts that go incredibly fast, and heaps of other stuff. My favorite was racing in a sweeb car, and watching my parents get wind- blown on a “free fall” which is like skydiving but without jumping out of an airplane. Basically a huge fan blows them up in the air. Haha (what you can do to your parents! – this has made my top 10 list!) I could go on and on about all the things we saw an experienced, but what's most important is the quality time we all got to spend with one another. We certainly kept the schedule chock full and hopefully allowed my parents an experience of their lifetime. It was a busy vacation, but it was all well worth it.  Check out the slide show of pictures for some snapshots of our holiday.

  

(As flight has taken place) First photo (dad) second photo (mom)

Conference

After our 2 weeks with my parents, Preston and I attended a conference in Auckland about Red Letter Christians. It was basically a conference on Justice; standing up for certain issues and acting. We think it was more of an activist conference; like telling people to go picket for what they believe in and value... they were basically trying to get people to quit sitting around watching things happen, and to actually Act to help out or prevent things. It was interesting to sit back and listen to all the speakers and watch the reactions of attendees.

YFC Visit

After the conference, we stayed an extra night in Auckland to pick up Art & Lois Deyo, who work as YFC support staff for Pastoral/Missionary Care; from the main office in Denver, CO. It was very nice to visit with them, and to be reminded about all the YFC support we have back in the states. Their visit was routine as all long term missionaries are visited at least once by a support staff person - with them we went over what we do here in Whangarei, our goals, personal assessment, and spent some time in prayer. It was a short visit as they were really only here for 2 days, but it was a great time. We shared some delicious meals together and participated in some "kiwi favorites" tim-tams, and Cadbury crunchy ice cream! Yummm

Back in town for a few days...

After nearly 2 1/2 weeks of being away due to having a holiday with my parents, and then a YFC conference, we are back in town for a few days. We will be flying out in four days for our Fiji Safari Camp (leaving Friday) so we will try to blog and update you all soon on what has been going on and what we will be doing in Fiji. However, for this evening we are spent from a long day of traveling and weeks of being away. But we are back!!! (somewhat)

We love and miss you all, and look forward to blogging you some more and posting pictures in the next day or two.

Cheers!

Marriage

I know we’ve been ministry focused on here with talking about upcoming events, what we are working towards, what has happened in the lives of student etc… And many of you have recently asked how we are personally and how married life is? So, thank you for asking… I certainly don’t want to leave that out of our blogging!!!
Married life is absolutely wonderful. Next Monday will mark 6 amazing months of marriage for us; and we couldn’t be happier together. I certainly can’t believe 6 months have already come and gone, but it sure has. We look back and still laugh at the many memories from our wedding, wedding planning, first dance, our times packing stuff in storage, and now what we’ve done in NZ and it’s simply amazing. God has certainly blessed us.
We continue to fall more and more in love with each other everyday; and have fun just being ourselves. This week we’ve rolled around on the floor playing ‘monster truck’ and Yesterday we were able to spend time doing laundry and cleaning the house…. Boring? Not at all… Laundry is tons of fun when it’s all folded and the socks are matched. We found ourselves getting into sock wars – throwing balls of socks at each other like they were water balloons… Ducking behind couches and hiding behind walls to stay clear of the sock balls, ready to fire them back at the other person. It’s fun to sometimes act like kids again…. Try It!!
We enjoy watching movies together cuddling on the couch in front of our little lap top screen, and laugh about each other’s “tops picks”. LeeAnn – cheesy movies, and chick flicks. Preston – dumb movies, and violent/manly movies. Either way, we watch them together and love every minute of it. Needless to say, we are the happy giddy couple that continues to fall for each other over and over again.

MMMMMM Grape Jelly

MMMMMMMM.... Grape Jelly!! As we swiftly dashed through the grocery store last weekend, LeeAnn happened to stumble upon a packet of "Make your own Jam." Since we have greatly missed our Grape Jelly with Peanut Butter,  we decided to go for a little Betty Crocker cooking. We got some grapes and all the other necessary contents to make Jam, and were off back home to our kitchen. LeeAnn could not wait until we made the Jelly; so we started promptly as soon as we were home. Some smashing (Pounding) of grapes, tearing of skin, boiling water, Tons of sugar, and a few more ingredients.. we we're on our way to being little Jam makers. When we were all finished, we had a huge pot of stickey Grape Goo that we poured and filled 3 salsa jars with. (We even made labels for them). And Within a few hours of cooling... we had some GREAT and Very YUMMY Grape Jelly. The days follwoing we have been able to enjoy some Good Peanut Butter & Grape Jelly sandwiches. CHEERS to some red grapes and some good cooking! 

Youth Zone Ball

(LeeAnn - The White Witch)

Last Saturday, Nov 1st we held our Annual Youth Zone Ball here in Whangarei for all the Northland teens. We had about 250 people packed in the ASB lounge for a fun night of dancing, unlimited food, and fizzes! (drinks). Some people dressed up in costume, and many dressed in formal attire. We decked the hall out with Narnia scenes: A Castle, the White Witches throne, wardrobe, stone table etc... People drove from all over for this ball, and overall had a grand time. At the end of the evening LeeAnn crowned the King and Queen of the ball; making their night even more magical.

Putting the ball together was a lot of work for the team as we turned the entire facility into a "Winter Wonderalnd" equipped with white walls (tons of sheets) stuffing to resemble snow, trees, a band, DJ, a snow machine, and so much more!!!

The Saturday of the ball we were down setting up at 10am up until the event started then got home at 4:30am after cleaning up. It was a fun and tiring evening for the team; but it was all well worth it.