"God and Music is a Powerful Thing"

Not only was this statement the tag-line for Parachute 08, but a truth that we saw throughout our weekend. The Parachute Music Festival is the biggest Christian music festival in the Southern Hemisphere. This weekend featured speakers and musicians such as Tony Campolo, Switchfoot, Hillsong United, Leigh Nash, and many other names that you may recognize. This festival reaches over 25,000 Kiwis, both Christian and non-Christian. This gathering is the only one of it's kind that gives believers from all of the country a chance to unite. There is teaching time, hang out time, carnival rides, and of course, concerts going on throughout the grounds on all of the nine stages with some of the 500 plus musicians and artists who were there.

This weekend was a powerful one for the group that we went with. There were seven kids who don't come from church backgrounds who made first time decisions to follow God completely. There were other kids in the group who rededicated their lives to God, and still others who decided to do some type of ministry with their life. It was really cool to see people realizing the need for God in their life on so many different levels.

The weather reached it's peak at 31 Celsius (about 85 Fahrenheit), which is unusually hot for New Zealand. When we arrived and started setting up tents, I felt like I was at the Quidditch World Cup (for you Harry Potter fans!) There were tents in every direction as far as you could see. We learned a lot about Kiwi culture in watching an interacting with so many Kiwis all weekend. There were people of all ages from newborn to over 70 years old camping out and taking part in this festival.

Parachute

Tomorrow morning Joe and I will join many youth from Shore for a weekend away. We are going to Hamilton, which is about an hour and a half south of Auckland for Parachute. Parachute is a Christian music festival, similar to Cornerstone from the states, or a Christian version of Woodstock. There will be bands from all over the world and people from all over New Zealand camping out for the weekend at this music festival. To get a glimpse of what our weekend may look like, you can go to parachute.co.nz. This is the first event to kick off youth group for the school year. We will post pictures of our weekend once we are home.

Foot Loose

Sunday mornings are usually the mornings that we tend to run late. We get up with more than enough time, but we always get busy working on other things and end up rushing out the door in order to get to church on time. This morning was like most Sundays and we were rushing out the door. We live about six or seven minutes from where the church services are held. We were about half way to church, on the motorway and I heard Joe say "Uhhh....I forgot to wear shoes." It was 9:57, church started at 10:00. We didn't have time to go back because we had to be at church by 10:00 because our team was being 'officially' introduced in front of the whole church.

In the States, we probably would have chosen being late over not wearing shoes. Here, we chose the latter. The culture in New Zealand is one that is VERY laid back. While driving on the motorway, we notice that we rarely see anyone speeding. Being late is acceptable, so why hurry and speed? At the grocery store and the mall, people can be seen in swimwear with no shoes. When something starts at 3:00, its okay to show up anytime after three. If you are invited to dinner at someone's house, often they will not start dinner until a while after you have arrived, it's more important to catch up on life first.

We had quite the cultural experience today! Joe got a few funny looks but mostly people were impressed that he felt comfortable enough here to try to be like the Kiwis.

Survey Says...

Last Friday began the first day of our survery work. Survey work is what we will be doing to 'survey' different areas and communities. We will be looking for areas with very few healthy Christian churches and with a large population base. We spent the day Friday praying and startegizing with a map of New Zealand. We will be looking specifically at six cities. We chose these cities to begin with based on the amount of growth they have experienced in the last five years. We are beginning to do demographic studies on the areas we have chosen to help us learn about the people and the area. After learning all that we can from the internet and phone calls, we will make trips to visit these areas. We will meet with any churches that are in the area, community leaders, and do random interviews to people on the streets about what they see as the biggest need in the community. Each of these six cities that we are looking at is divided up into different regions in which we will need to survey, interview, and learn about. Please pray with our team that we will be intentinoal, hardworking, and observant, but that we will also follow where God is leading us to start a church.

The Crate has Arrived!

We have heard that "Home is where the heart is" is something that missionaries really have to live by becuase they move so often. We do believe that statment holds a lot of truth, but I think our team mate, Nate, put it in a clever way today when he said "Home is where the stuff is!"

Our apartment finally has all of our own things in it! Our team kept saying how today felt more like Christmas than December 25th did for us! It has been eight months since we packed up our home in Rochester and put whatever possesions that we had into storage (winter clothes, dishes, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, books.) We packed the rest of our stuff, like clothes and other items that we had accumulated over the summer in October. Today, we were able to get our stuff again!

We left for New Zealand on November 3rd with two suitcases each, one with clothes, and one with sheets/toiletries/gifts. After living on one suitcase for over two months, we can't believe how much we have now that the crate has arrived! It has been interesting moving our stuff from a house with a garage and a lot of storage along with things from Joe's office, to a small apartment, with no garage, and a tiny yard. Our spare room is used for our computers, our bikes, our tools, our towels, games and books, which can be transformed into a guest suite if you decide to visit! It is quite interesting really.


We had some friends help us unload the crate and we were done quite early. We were able to spend the majority of the day unpacking and turning our apartment into 'home'. We finsished most of the unpacking today. We had a great day but we are exhausted. It was so fun to open a box and find things in it that we thought we had sold or even forgotten that we had.


(Our apartment around noon)



(Our Apartment at 7:30 this evening)

After eight months of living out of a suitcase, we are excited to be here and stay put for a while. With all of that said, tomorrow begins our survey work. This means we will be searching for the community with the most need for a new church. Over the next few months we hope to decipher where it is that our team is needed most....and move there!

New Zealand has Shut Down!

Kiwis say that as Americans, we can't truly understand what happens after Christmas until we live through it. Well, we are in the middle of living through what we have heard about...after Christmas, New Zealand shuts down, everyone either goes on holiday, or just takes time off work. With most jobs in NZ, four weeks of vacation is an expected minimum. With most people in NZ, alot of that time is taken right after Christmas. We are still trying to figure things out, but here is a little glimpse into what NZ is like right now:

Shops and businesses can close down, shorten their hours, or just choose not to open on any given day, especially if it is a nice day.

The traffic that is usually so awful that we face going (south) into the city is not an issue right now, it's the motorway going north that has traffic jams. Everyone is headed north to the really nice beaches, to their baches (aka summer homes), and just to get away.

The church that we are at has gone from two services, four children's programs, youth events throughout the week, and around 400 people to one service and about 150 people.

Beaches have added extra carparks and the southern motorway is down to one lane due to works (construction) over the month of January. It is very common to see any kind of car pulling a boat and loaded down with outdoor equipment.

Commitments are optional, attendance doesn't matter, sunscreen is selling out, and shoes aren't a requirement, it's summer break and New Zealand has shut down!


Here is a picture that we took of the sign that hangs on the window of the Bakery in Greenhithe, where we live.