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.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
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
Here is a picture of someone's front yard. We saw their cows swimming around...
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.
Friday, July 25, 2008
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?
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
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:
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)
- 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)
