Travel to New Zealand
“Hi from New Zealand!” In some ways, it’s hard to believe that we are so far from home, especially since everyone still speaks English—albeit with the coolest accent you’ve ever heard. For us, it’s tomorrow. Meaning its early Monday here and you’re still experiencing Sunday. Our travel to New Zealand was a series of answers to prayer, from the tickets arriving for the Wilsons in Fiji with only a few hours to spare, to everyone showing up in LAX in time to catch the flight to Auckland in spite of a delayed flight, to all of our luggage showing up on this end (an amazing thing for 32 pieces of luggage on an international flight).
The Team
Thursday morning Mr. Calvert and Mr. Lim met us at the airport with vans and we all piled in for the 6-hour trek south to Marton and the Arahina Training Centre (yes, that’s spelled correctly for New Zealand). We drove through some of the most beautiful and varied scenery you can imagine—sub-tropical vegetation, snowcapped mountains, the desert, mountain lakes and rivers—it’s no wonder New Zealand is famous for its natural beauty.
Getting Acclimated
We took the day on Friday to become familiar with the training center, meet the staff, and rest after two long days of travel. Saturday here often includes a fun outing for the staff, so we joined them for a trip to the sand dunes along the Tasman Sea on the east coast of New Zealand. It was a great way to get to know the staff and the New Zealand students who live at the training center.
“May I serve you some breakfast?” Lydia’s catering skills are coming in handy.
Welcome to Kiwi Culture and Ministry
On Sunday the team experienced a couple of New Zealand churches. My group attended a church where we will be doing a children’s program later on this week. We were able to meet some of the kids who will probably be attending. We had a great time talking with the older people at the church and also met several homeschool families. The evening service at the training center was an amazing blend of cultures, with people from New Zealand, Australia, America, Canada, Malaysia, and India all participating. Shelly did a great job sharing her testimony as a part of the evening’s program.
Kyle cooking pancakes with his new little friend.
Today we start into the busy part of our ministry schedule. As I work on this blog, part of the team is in the kitchen preparing brunch for the staff. It’s a holiday in New Zealand, so we are giving them a day off from some of their normal responsibilities. Another part of the team will be grilling for the cook out this evening. During the rest of the week we have ministry projects for widows, a children’ program, a visit to a nursing home, teaching Bible in the public schools, and other projects.
Please pray that God will help us as a team to have boldness to reach out and take advantage of the ministry opportunities that surround us. It’s not always easy to walk up to total strangers and start conversations or witness to people, even if there isn’t a language barrier in the way, yet that is the kind of ministry this team needs to be able to tackle.
Welcome to the training center!
Shelly and Katrina with a Maori friend.
It‘s spring in New Zealand—a bit of a change for those of us from the northern US and Canada.
Adrian and Katrina in the kitchen.
They may speak English here, but that does not mean everything works the same way as it does at home.
