We're Home

Hello all!
We have to first apologize for dropping off the face of the Earth with our blogging. We became so busy meeting new people and sharing with them that blogging was pushed aside.

Anyways, we have all finally made it home safely after a few long days of traveling! We have only been home a few hours so we're not quite sure if the jet lag has really kicked in yet or not.

To "quickly" recap you on all that has gone down since we last chatted...

The team was able to be a part of the family camp called The Gathering one weekend. We had a blast hanging out with a ton of awesome people and serving them in a variety of contexts. A lot of our time was spent "Driving the Bus" with the children. We can all perform that for you if you would ever like...just ask us about that. ;) But yes, The Gathering was an awesome time getting to understand the Kiwi culture a little bit better and see how the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand comes together.

After a few days of nonstop at camp, we went on a little road trip. We even had the priveledge to sea kayak to Cathedral Cove (which was used in a scene from Prince Caspian!). Such a beautiful hands-on adventure for us all. I am not sure how anyone could see what we saw and still not believe that God exists. New Zealand is a beautiful place with many hospitable people. We had such an amazing time!

After our New Zealand adventures, we did have the opportunity to spend about a week in Sydney, Australia. Sydney was a great experience as well but we have to admit that our hearts were still lost in New Zealand--we missed the country and our new friends a lot. We did have plenty of exciting and interesting adventures while in Australia though. All from shopping at Paddy's Markets, to eating pb&j's each day, to watching surfers at the beach, to taking public transportation (trains/buses/ferries), to hiking the Blue Mountains, and so much more that I do not have time to share!

The five of us really bonded throughout this trip and had a wonderful time getting to know one another better. There was definitely a lot of laughter throughout our trip as well. :) We also need to give props to Matt for putting up with 4 girls for 3 weeks straight haha ya!

All in all, God really proved His hand on this trip and spoke personally to all of our hearts. I am sure you will be hearing soon from a member of the team about our trip, but if not, definitely feel free to write us and we would love to share with you!

Thank you SO much for your support and prayers!!! We could not have done this without you.

In Christ's loving hands,

New Zealand Team 2009

Sunday and Monday

Dear beloved family and friends,
It's your favorite team coming at you fast from Auckland, New Zealand. Let's recap the last two days...

Day 5...
The morning started off bright and early with a Sunday morning service at Streams Church. The church family here is extremely wonderful. Our whole team felt like we were apart of the family the second we walked in the church. Atu, the senior pasture, invited us to come up and share a little bit about ourselves. Later that day it was off to meeting more people. We had our first authentic New Zealand meal of fish and chips. To finish up the night we drove over to East City Wesleyan to hang out and share testimonies with the youth groups.

Day 6...
Happy Birthday Matthew! At 4 pm today, our team member Matthew Allan Guerin turned 20! We celebrated with cake and ice cream during a nice home cooked meal. Earlier today we spent our time doing community service, cleaning out a soccer club. Then tonight we went to Cession to fellowship with more youth groups. Many laughs were had. Until tomorrow, or not. Good night and good luck.

Friday and Saturday in the city

Day 3, Friday-
Today we went to the Auckland Museum... we saw Maori artifacts and the famous Maori Hacka dance. We saw a kiwi bird... but it was stuffed, and an elephant that had to be put down because it was not friendly to children. After a few hours there, we went to Mexicali Fresh, similar to Chipotle, then took a long elevator ride up into the Sky Tower where we had panoramic views of the city. Then it was off to a church on the south side of Auckland to help out with their after-school kids program where we hung out and played games with the students. After that we went to the North Shore to watch our first rugby game and fellowship with some of the youth and family of Shore Grace Church.

Day 4, Saturday-
Today started off with a rousing 15K walk-a-thon with some of the members from Streams Church (we were told it was going to be a 5K) The people we met were from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and other Pacific island nations. After the walk we had tea and breakfast. They were very welcoming and made us feel like we were family. Later we went to Mt. Wellington (an extinct volcano in the city) and saw more great views of the city. Then we drove down to southern Auckland to attend the dedication of Papakura Wesleyan Church. The church doubles as a community center for the lowest socioeconomic area in New Zealand. They are aiming to reach out to the families and youth of this area through many different activities. We then went to the home of the head pastor of another church, where we met more people who are involved in the wesleyan churches in this area.

We're Here!

Kia Ora!  Which means hello in the native Maori language.

We just wanted to let you all know that we made it here safely!  We got in to Auckland around 5am yesterday.  We were all very tired and you will not believe that we made it until 8pm (which would be around 4am US time) that night without falling asleep!..crazy right?!  :)

We started with breakfast at the Fussner's, settled into our host homes and then explored downtown Auckland.  We were challenged to walk up to complete strangers in the city with questions to ask them to better understand New Zealand people and their culture.  The people that opened up to us were very friendly and were very willing to talk about anything.  There are different nationalities here...we love the diversity.  It was a very neat experience!

We were able to go to One Tree Hill, the park not the show, and it had an amazing view!  But it was really cold there so we didn't stay long.  After we ate New Zealand hamburgers at BurgerFuel, we crawled to bed and slept for almost 11 wonderful hours.

Today we worked with Habitat For Humanity clearing up a site where a house used to be.  It was fun getting down and dirty in all the mud!  Fortunately they lent us some gum boots.

We are heading to dinner now so we will talk with you later.  Sorry for the delay in the first post.  :)

~Team New Zealand

Almost there...

Hello everyone!

We are leaving tomorrow for New Zealand! We are very excited about this amazing adventure that the Lord is taking us on and exremely eager to see how God is going to move through our team!

We decided to start this blog to keep you, our supporters, updated on what is going on while we are in New Zealand. We hope to update this blog regularly. Each team member will be posting every so often about their own thoughts and feelings about how God is working on our team and using our team each day.
Definitely feel free to leave comments to encourage us etc! :)

Thank you so much for your support! Your prayers are greatly appreciated!!

~Carmen, Matt, Kaitlin, Alecia, and Amy
(The New Zealand Team)