Preparing for Another Storm

Well if we thought the weekend weather was a one time event, we were wrong. Authorities are telling us to prepare for another big front to come through this afternoon around 3pm, and continue until about 6am Wednesday morning. We are hoping that it won't be as bad as the last storm. We're are preparing for just as much rain, if not more, and high winds. The thunderstorms here are really cool as there is hardly lightening or thunder. In the storm this past weekend, we don't recall hearing any thunder or seeing any lightening. Please pray for all those this storm will affect. There are many still battling the floods from last weekend, and 3 lives that were lost. We are really hoping to have our Rock Solid Club meeting tonight, however, we might have to make a decision to cancel tonight's club depending upon the weather. If we do have club we will be sure to let you know how it went, and post some photos of the evening!! Blessings to you all.

The Whangarei Falls in the Storm

It's amazing how much these falls are raging right now!

Who knew you could have so much fun in the calm of a storm!

Here are some More photos of the flooding after the storm...

The NZ Storm

Here is a link to the storm: http://3news.co.nz/News/MassivestormhitsNorthlandAuckland/tabid/209/articleID/64487/cat/41/Default.aspx

Below is an image of The Whangarei Falls during the storm. There is a much different look on a normal day - check out the image below this (from the same location). There are also pictures in pervious posts a few days ago of us at the falls...

Here is a picture of someone's front yard. We saw their cows swimming around...

This is the "creek" behind our house.... not much of a creek in this picture though.

Prayer Requests

1. We lead our first Rock Solid Club program on Tuesday. Please pray that we have a good time with the teens, that they are accepting of us, and that we lead a good program that they understand. (Words are really different here)

2. We're still trying to sort out internet and such at our cottage. Please pray that the companies can get us connected and that we are in an area that gets broadband range.

3. Pray for the YFC Club program in the city that we are helping out. They are really low on funds due to the economic status of the families we are working with. LeeAnn is heading up a big charity auction that will take place in October. We're all trying to get items donated from companies, and we have a radio station that is sponsoring our event and giving us good publicity. Everything is just now underway in planning that event, and we hope to not hit very many road blocks. Last year the auction had to be canceled because there was a lack of YFC staff, volunteers, and team members (it was a 2 person show). Now that there is a team of 4-5 of us, so we are hoping to pull this event off really big. We need to make about $15,000 to cover the program for the next year. In past years they have brought in about $13,000 so we are hopeful we can reach our goal this year.

4. Please pray that we can find a good small group and church home to attend while we are here, and that we can begin to meet people our age to hang out with.  

5. We are expecting to get some very bad whether tonight into tomorrow that could cause flooding and have damaging winds. Pray that this storm misses the Whangarei area!!

6. Pray for our continued funding and support of people back home while we are overseas. 

Our Weekend Trip Tramping (hiking)

Over the weekend we took a hike along the Tutukaka (too too ka ka) scenic walkway. Here are some of the images from the adventure....

The Ocean is simply Beautiful...
Preston for a pose with his new hiking poles...LeeAnn took a detour from the marked path because she thought it would be faster to go down and up the hills, rather then around the hills. (It was faster, but she got dirty!) 

Where's Waldo... can you find her? In the next two photos?

Pictures of the Move

Here is a picture of our sweet vehicle... Toyota Hiace. We pick kids up for breakfast club then bring them to school in here.

Here is a picture of our bedroom. Big thanks to James & his parents for letting us borrow their furniture for a year.
Here is our living room. LeeAnn enjoys laying on the floor in front of the fire. Our Landlord left the couches and a coffee table for us to use; which was very nice of him!
Here is Preston's man room.... the wood shed. This is connected to the garage; which is nice because we don't need to go outside to get wood. 
Here is our sweet drying rack (compliments of James's parents)

We're in Our Cottage!

                                                      We have moved into our cottage! We’ve had a fun and tiring weekend as we have moved furniture, purchased needed items, and finally got settled in. We have a cute 2-bedroom place in Nugunguru (nun-ga-roo), which is just 7 minutes to town and 10 minutes from Tutukaka (too-too-ka-ka) where there is the most beautiful beaches on the North Island. – Yes, We have a spare bedroom for you to stay in!

Pictured above is LeeAnn stuffing the duvet cover.
Currently we do not have internet at the house so we are only able to get online when we are at the office; hopefully in the next week or so we’ll have broadband pumping at home so we can keep more in touch.

As we have been getting settled in, here are some things we’ve come across:

Strange Things in New Zealand:
- Broadband is paid for per Giga-byte. (ex: every website you visit, pictures are downloaded – once your connection has reached your 1 G you are put to dial-up for the remainder of the month) Here are the costs of some of the broadband stuff: $29.95 = 1G, $44.95 = 5G, $69.96 = 10G. In buying internet this way, you certainly can’t tap into a wireless connection; you’ll run up someone’s internet capacity.
- EVERYTHING in NZ is expensive. (We should have paid the extra bag fee and sent a suitcase of towels, sheets, kitchen supplies, pots etc...) We could not find a single Pot for under $25.00. A 10-pack of Hangers cost $5.00- Cell phones: for 20 minutes a month it cost $19.95. Free nights and weekends? Nope. For 60 minutes it cost $39.95, 120 minutes $69.95 per month. Those are simply the basic plans of minutes per month – additional add-ons are available at additional prices. I now feel very blessed for the plans that Verzion puts out in the states. 
- Costs: Parking is rarely free at major shopping centers (like the mall area), trash is paid for per bag, but recycling is free - I think this makes people recycle more: they need to do that in the states!! And gas/milk are purchased per liter. Milk is about $2.38 a liter, and gas is $2.10 a liter. (about $7.00 or $8.00 a gallon)
- Heat - Many houses here don’t have central air or heat. The one we are renting doesn't either. All the heat comes from a fireplace. (we were out hunting down wood this past weekend) – Our fireplace has a wet back so it heats up our water as well - saves money on the power bill!
- Laundry – I've found that many people use clotheslines and don’t have dryers. A cheap dryer costs around $8 or 900.00. We are very blessed to be using a heap of furniture from our directors friends parents. - And in the stuff we are using is a washer and a dryer! They certainly have saved us a lot of money. They are also allowing us to use dressers and a queen bed.
- Bedding – they don’t sell comforters here. Everything Is done in different sized duvet’s. Which is pretty cool because they are easy to wash - just hard to stuff.

The Grocery store (some slight devastations)
- They don’t sell Grape Jelly here! – I asked the grocery store lady and she replied: “Grape Jelly that sounds like a good idea” (PB&J is just not the same for LeeAnn anymore)
- They don’t sell Macaroni & Cheese like we have– this was kinda sad. We did find some stuff similar to easy mac, which was good... Velveta shells and cheese will be missed.
- The don’t sell minced onion- ordinary spice? Not really... We're trying to find substitutes for our french onion dip.
- Cheese: To buy the cheap cheap cheese on sale, it will cost a minimum of $8.00. Cheese is very expensive here. Something has been driving up the cheese prices here and the source is still unknown.
- Milk comes in different flavors (regular, lime, banana, strawberry, chocolate)
- They don’t sell regular tortilla chips – they’re all flavored.
- There is no “packaged meat” as there is in US grocery stores. – You cannot buy a package of ham or bologna or turkey etc… for cut meat one must go to a deli. (But you know it's Fresh!!)
- The cereal isle is very small and there is no unhealthy stuff here… They are missing out on the shredded wheat, reece’s puff cereal, lucky charms, frosted cheerios etc… They are certainly a much more healthy country then we seem to be!!

Our first week of being at the office, of Rock Solid Club and youth ministry stuff all starts this week…. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
(more pictures of the move to follow when we're back near internet)

The Whangarei Falls

The Whangarei Falls (not far from our house)

In front of the falls....

New Zealand Pine Trees. - LeeAnn thinks these trees are funny.

Pictures of Whangarei

Overlooking the city of Whangarei (Fun-ga-ray)

Below: The beach we will hold Summer Harvest Camp at.

Watching the sunset over the hills... (Summer Harvest site)

Our First Day in NZ

The morning of our First day in New Zealand, we went to the market. (Here are pictures of the market). Every saturday the Slykerman family goes to the market to get fresh fruit and veggies. It's amazing the prices at the market compared to the grocery stores. Avocados at the market only cost a dollar when at the stores they are $3.00.  Celery, fruits, flowers etc... are all much cheaper at the market. We have decided to make the market on Saturday morning's a weekly event to get food for the following week. 

All the vehicles in New Zealand are similar to those in the US however, there are a lot of "bus" time vehicles here. (The one pictured below is not our vehicle) that was just a picture taken for LeeAnn's dad; an avid VW Bus owner). 

GOOD NEWS! - We have got all of our luggage. It arrived at different times, but we finally have everything. So it's been nice to change into some clean clothes. But we are still living out of our suitcases (just for a few more days). On Friday we will begin moving furniture into our new rental home, and we will personally move into the house on Saturday. Very Exciting!!! We will be staying in a 2 bedroom flat, that is about 10 minutes from the beach. (426 Ngunguru Rd) This is pronounced nun-ga-roo. 

We hope you are all having a great week, you are all in our prayers daily. Thanks you for your love, support, emails, and comments back on the blog - its always fun to hear from you. Watch for more pictures - will be posted soon! Blessings!!!

 

Pictures from Traveling

These pictures accompany the following add that we posted about our crazy time traveling.

Enjoy!!!

Our Lay Over in Tahiti. Enough time to sleep on a couch, rest, relax, re-fuel, and re-load.

Preston going a little crazy in the Charlotte airport waiting on our flight.

In the air around NZ (-77 deg. F) Frost on the windows...

On the flight from Tahiti to NZ. Are we there yet??

We have Arrived in New Zealand!!!!

Arrival in New Zealand

With a great adventure at hand, we have arrived Safely. It is Friday here, and winter!

How was the flight? The flight was long, restless, and crowded. Our seats were accompanied behind a toddler and infant, in front of an infant, and in the same row with twin two year olds. Whew! You can bet they were screaming and crying a good majority of the time. At one point I think there was a screaming competition going on, but it was a good 18 hour flight from LA to Auckland. We are just lucky we got to fly…..We arrived at the Charlotte airport at 2:30pm on Wednesday to give ourselves a little extra time because we were traveling with loads of bags. Our flight was at 6:10pm headed to Los Angeles. Unfortunately due to some bad weather we did not take off from Charlotte until 8:00pm, putting us in LA at 11:10pm to catch an 11:40pm flight. You can see where this is going…..

We run off the plane, check the monitors and haul some booty to the bus to take us to the international terminal. When we got to the international section we got some nice airport lady to run ahead of us to the Air Tahiti check in booth and warn them we were coming. The guy at the desk said the door to the plane was closed and we would not make the flight. Of course, we were irritated and tired because for us it was 2:30am and we had already been traveling for 9+ hours.After a little bit of checking into new flights we were informed that the next flights out weren’t until Saturday. We would have to spend 3 days in LA at a hotel at our own expense. (Airports evidently don’t compensate for missing a flight due to weather). But God is good, and as we stood at the counter and prayed that God would help us out, he Did! The check-in guy came back in a rush and asked us if we could clear security quickly because they were going to hold the plane and open it back up for us. This was such as blessing to hear!

From there the race was on…. We had escorts taking us through security (jumping the lines was cool) we stripped down as fast as we could, emptied book bags, and got through. I grabbed my tickets and continued to run behind my escort. Mean while as Preston was trying to get through security fast – he was stopped, and questioned about his bag. (Liquids, canisters?) With a fast no – security wasn’t going to have it. As I (LeeAnn) Continued to run with the escort to the airplane with a book bag, guitar, and rolly suitcase, Preston was having to open his carry-on luggage so security could check for bombs or something. What was the hold up? (LeeAnn’s Easy Cheese – yes a favorite plane snack, taken). Stinkin Easy Cheese!!! After what seemed like the mile run with 60 pounds 

of luggage, we made it on the plane and had 

a nice ride to Tahiti, where we had an hour layover to sleep on the couches and re-load back for another 8 hours to Auckland. Overall, the flight was not bad. It’s so much eas

ier traveling at night when you can take some sleeping pills and be OUT. 

The sleep-aid stuff we got at target was Awesome. The flight showed some pretty good movies, and gave out unlimited Soft drinks, beer, and wine, so we were set. Our biggest traveling tackle was mainly trying to make the connection and get on the plane, and then get all our bags through.

** We did arrive in New Zealand Bag-less.

All of our luggage is still chilling in Los Angeles to take the Saturday flight. In the meantime w

e are trying out the Clothes reversal thing. Hopefully we will see our luggage next Monday or Tuesday!

We have figured out how to get past the carry on baggage policy: As we both had huge backpacks, and a roll-on suitcase, we were maxed out on our luggage restriction. However, we also had my guitar – putting us one piece over, meaning we would have to pay $50.00. However, as I believe that we paid enough for the flight I was not going to get charged for an extra bag. What did we do? Every time we approached the plane we would have some nice person in line who didn’t have any bags, or only had one bag – take one of our suitcases so we could carry the guitar on and not be caught with three pieces of carry on luggage. So did we have to pay for that 3rd bag?? NOPE!

 Not on USAir or Air Tahiti. ☺ Now that’s smart thinking!!

Speaking Kiwi – A Glossary of the NZ English for you and it’s meaning.

Some of these are pretty funny....A&E (Emergency room), Lorry (Truck), Lift (Elevator), Bill (restaurant check), anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise), biscuit (cookie). Bonnet (car hood), boot (car/truck), caravan (house trailer/RV), chemist (pharmacy), chips (French fries), GP (doctor), Jelly (jello), Rent (hire), loo (restroom), pushchair (stroller), pudding (dessert), stalls (orchestra seats), surgery (doctor’s office), ten pin bowling (bowling), toilets (restrooms), trolley (shopping cart), trousers (pants), Pants (underwear), torch (flashlight), serviette (napkin), Crib (holiday cottage), Chilly-bin (cooler), bludge (borrow), Chook (chicken), Cocky (farmer), Tramping (hiking), dairy (grocery store), handle (beer glass w/handle), judder bars (speed bumps), crook (sick), cuppa (tea), mozzie, Mosquito), togs (swimwear), wowser (killjoy), jandles (flip-flops/sandals), She’ll be right (that’s okay), hoe (paddle), manu (bird), pavement (sidewalk), petrol (gas), plaster (band-aid) football (rugby/sometimes soccer), tailback (stalled line of traffic), junction (intersection), rocket (argula), hau (wind).

What we left at home.....

Our 10x10 storage unit back in the states. 

Ready To Leave... Not Really

We are coming ever closer to departure which is set for this Wed and we couldn't be more excited. The bad news is we aren't quite ready yet... however we do have good news.... we just saved tons of money on our car insurance by switching to Geico. Seriously the good news is we do have two more days in the States and we only have a few more things to do. Our bags are packed, haha, well let me rephrase, one of us has our bags packed and the other is still working. I am sure you can guess based on a previous blog who is still in the process of packing. It is hard to think that we have airline tickets purchased for a one-way flight with no return flights purchased. It is even harder for LeeAnn to think that her hair dryer will not plug into the power outlets in New Zealand.

We recently had a going away party in Charlotte and got to see a bunch of friends and family we don't get to see often enough and we also just got back from a short trip down to Georgia. We are so busy trying to make final plans to leave the country and will probably be unable to post again until we get to the field. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel to NZ. Also, if you know any games that are fun for two people to play on an airplane we would appreciate it because lets face it.... we will probably run out of things to talk about during a 23 hour plane ride. We love you guys and we will be thinking about you!!

Consider Yourself Blessed

As you read this you may be sitting in your air conditioned house, enjoying an ice cold drink, with the TV or a light on in the background... you might have just returned home in your car from a trip to the grocery store, Starbucks or you may have been out for a nice dinner... you might be having problems in your life with your family, your job, your school, who knows.... Life is a tough thing at times and we tend to worry about what we don't have and take the things we do have for granted...

We are all very blessed and should realize what we have and just how lucky we are.
We recently got back from a mission trip to Juarez, Mexico. We took a group of 9 to serve, including adults and youth from our church. It was an opportunity to help others and to share the love of Christ with people in need. It was an awesome and eye-opening trip for us and also for our youth group. Many of the people in our group have never had the opportunity to serve internationally and really got a lot out of the trip. They didn't really understand the conditions in which millions of people live all over the world. We saw houses made of everything from pallets to tarps to cardboard boxes. The pictures of these areas will remain in our thoughts forever...

While we were in Mexico, we worked on a local church/community center that is being built in hopes to reach out to the needy people around Juarez. We were involved in many construction projects that ranged from concrete work to stucco                                             to shoveling rocks to raking rocks to shoveling rocks to raking rocks... needless to say we worked really hard!! It was tough work but it was all worth in for a few reasons. First, when we saw Pastor Ramone step back during the middle of a tough day of work and begin to smile as he saw his vision begin to take shape. (Pastor Ramone and his wife Delphina were the family that has the vision from God to construct the community center) We were also thankful during each night of vacation bible school (VBS) when we saw the smiling faces of the children of Juarez. Each night, we held VBS classes for all of the kids in the community and each night more and more kids came. It was quite a sight to watch the kids running to greet us as our bus pulled up and to hear them calling our names as we exited the bus. It was awesome to minister to a group of kids that we so willing to learn and hear the things we had to tell them. We had a blast with the kids at VBS and it was tough to leave them knowing we may never see them again. We had a blast in Mexico and it was a great opportunity to serve people in need. It was an amazing week in Mexico and we are all different as we return to our "normal" lives.

So remember, the next time your computer doesn't work, you drop a phone call, or you say you are "starving" because you haven't eaten for a few hours.... remember that some people have to deal with much harder problems everyday of their lives...