Southland - South Island Trip Part II

The second leg of our trip was a little bit slower paced, though very much out of our comfort zones. It was interesting to see pieces of Kiwi culture that we hadn't seen much of in the city-life in Auckland. After Christchurch, we drove down to Southland, the Southern region of New Zealand to Gore/Mataura, (we even drove on the Clinton-Gore Highway that goes in between a small town call Clinton to Gore!) 

Gore can easily be compared to small town America with a Kiwi twist! The small town America is that everyone knows everyone. The Kiwi twist is how laid back the Kiwis in Southland are. At first this laid back lifestyle was hard for our team to get used to. We had jus

t come off of a couple of survey days that were planned and packed full. In Gore, you go with the flow and plans are typically made as they are about to happen. Each of us couples on the team stayed with a different family from the church we were working with in Gore 

which helped to give us a realistic picture of life in Southland. 

Our main objective in going to Southland was to help out at the Mataura Christian Church. Mataura CC is considered a healthy church that pulls members from both Gore and Mataura, two small towns near one another. Our team lead the Sunday services, helping with youth and children, leading worship, and preaching. We also planned a Sunday tea (dinner) for the church with games and information about our team and why we are in New Zealand. Other churches came to the tea from over an hour away, giving us almost 50 people to entertain that evening!

Over the next few days we spent time with families from the church as well as with church leaders. Joe had an opportunity to meet with, train, and encourage the youth leaders. 

We felt so blessed to be able to stay with the family that we did. We learned so much about kiwi life as the Taylor's welcomed us into their family for a large part of the week. We felt right at home as we played with their kids, ate meals together, and had some insightful conversations about the condition of the church in New Zealand. 

God continually provided for us on this trip though places to stay, unplanned conversa

tions, and deep relationships that were made. Though we were meant to encourage the church in Mataura, we were encouraged by them. And even though we weren't intentionally doing 

nally doing survey work, God lead us to people who shared their hearts with us about church planting in New Zealand that has g

iven us great insight. 

The last day in Southland we traveled a little further south to Bluff, the southern most city, to go to the southern most point in New Zealand! We even ate at the southern most McDonalds in the world! 

Keep checking in for the third and final part of our trip!