Travel Time

We leave tomorrow, (Thursday for us) to head down to Christchurch. Next week we will be hitting Christchurch and Wellington for a second round of survey trips. We have some more strategic events planned to help us better understand not only the culture of the cities, but of suburbs and areas of interests in each city. The purpose of this trip is to narrow our efforts into one spot in one of these cities that we think would be best suited for a new church. We will look at one more city when we get back. 

Joe and I are going down to Christchurch two days earlier than the team. We are taking Friday and Saturday as a mini-holiday and a time to relax. We will be spending Friday skiing on the Southern Alps and Saturday will most likely be spent recovering and enjoying some of the more fun parts of Christchurch. We are looking forward to a couple of days away before our big week of survey work. 

Between the three couples on our team, there will be over 72 hours of prayer done by our partners during our time on this survey trip. Our partners will be praying for specific things with us as we are on these important survey trips. Are you interested in being a part of this prayer vigil? If so, just contact us at joeandamy654@yahoo.com to let us know when you would like to prayer. We are asking for prayers on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. If you would like a prayer guide just let us know and we will send you one. It may take a couple of days since we will be traveling. 

Thanks for keeping up with us! We will update you when we get back! 

Darkenss

"If God is dead, then all things are permissible." 

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

 Too many people in New Zealand are acting under this assumption. We recently heard a Kiwi speak on such a topic and it reminded us again about why we are here. 

The spiritual darkness in New Zealand can be overwhelming at times. Since we have lived here, it has hit us in waves. We continually pray that God will break our hearts for this country and for the people here, and we see it happening. 

There are so many statistics that caught our attention before we moved here, but now we are seeing those statistics come to life in the people that we interact with, and it is breaking our hearts. We are seeing children and adults who are scarred by divorce and abuse, churches that are closing their doors, and an alarming increase in the random acts of crime, and people looking for answers. 

It seems like every week there is a heinous and senseless criminal act reported on. This week a young girl in our town was taken from her home by a mysterious masked man. These random acts of crime are beginning to hit home more and more, with many people in our community very worried. Our hearts continue to break for this country as we pray for it's redemption. 

A few weeks ago the movie Prince Caspian had its debut in New Zealand (I know, old news for the States, but it was filmed in New Zealand!) Our church booked a theater to view it and then heard a lecture (by Dr. Adam Claasen) on the biblical meanings behind the movie. This lecture, or sermon, was one of my favorite ones, I have listened to it a few times now. In this sermon, Dr. Claasen compared New Zealand and the people here to Narnia. He gave some alarming statistics about the correlation between the declining amount of Christians and the increasing amount of crime and violence. 

I would like to encourage you to listen to the Prince Caspian Sermon. (You can do so by clicking on the underlined words.) If you haven't seen the movie, you may want to watch it first, but if not, you will still understand the sermon. It is about 35 minutes long, so it will take some time. Listen to it as you are getting ready in the morning or making dinner or cleaning the house (that's what I have been doing!) As you are doing so, listen for what is being said about the state of New Zealand. 

When you finish, would you take a minute to pray for New Zealand? Please pray for the people here and for us as we long to show them the Love of God in a practical way that will change their lives. Please pray for our safety and our faith as we endure this darkness each day. 

Reunion

Since out team retreat we have been working on a lot, but have not had the chance to be together as a whole team. We have had many meetings with various leaders and experts about our church planting strategy and also about our plant locations. We are working diligently to make this process come together in a timely and effective manner. 

Last night we were finally together as a whole team! We had dinner together and just hung out for a while enjoying each other's company and the precious little ones. 

Please continue praying with us as we prepare to visit Christchurch and Wellington at the end of the month. Pray for unity in what we see and for God to lead us to a specific spot in one of these cities that will be perfect for our team to start the church. 

Fourth of July Weekend

So the Fourth of July doesn't mean much to the average Kiwi, but we still had a busy weekend, so why not call it "Fourth of July Weekend?" We missed being a part of the many activities that my family does on the fourth, but enjoyed our weekend just the same. 

As July marks some of the warmest days of the summer in the States, the opposite is true here. The weekend brought with it some of the coldest days we have seen yet. We do our best to stay warm and bundled up. 

Friday night we helped with a lock-in or an all nighter with the youth. There were over 50 students there and many activities

.

 Joe was in charge of planning  many of the activities for the evening and the students really seemed to enjoy them. Joe introduced the students to the "Gallon Challenge" - which is where you try to drink a gallon of milk in an hour without any of it coming back up. He renamed it the "Two Liter Lactose Eater" since there are not gallons in NZ. Two liters is about half a gallon so he challenged four students to drink the two liters in half an hour. Not only did they have to chug milk, but he got them flavored milk-lime, banana, strawberry, and chocolate. There was one girl who did not vomit, the others did but seemed to enjoy it.

     

The night was full of students doing crazy things, but all seemed to have fun! There was a bounce house, disco-dance room, Sing Star karaoke, movies, pizza, and many other fun things that accompany an all nighter. Needless to say we spent the first part of Saturday catching up on sleep! 

Sunday marked the last official day for Joe and I working in the children's ministry on Sunday mornings. We have enjoyed our time there but are excited to see the new leaders take over. Sunday was also a special day at church becuase Liam was dedicated. It is so amazing to watch our team mates and their new families!

                

Next Steps

Since arriving in New Zealand there have been certain milestones that we have been looking forward to. It seems as though we have hit many of these milestones and are now moving forward into our next steps. 

Last week our team spent two days in a team planning retreat. We are excited about how much we were able to accomplish and feel blessed by the way God continues to lead us forward. The first accomplishment of our retreat was narrowing down the ten cities centers that we have been surveying to three cities that we feel like have the most need for a new church plant. We had people all around the world praying for this decision and we could tell by the ease in which this decision was made. The three cities that we ended up with after the retreat were Christchurch, Wellington, and West Auckland. 

Some other things we worked on during the retreat were  making a timeline for the beginning of the church up to the next church that will start as a result as this first church. We also came up with a strategy to reach non christians and de-churched people. We made a general strategy and then narrowed it down to specifics for each of the cities on the list. Though we will end up in only one city, we are looking at different strategies to help us understand each place better.

We were able to begin a budget for our church and cover some other smaller topics. We ended Saturday morning with a meeting with our management team over the internet to fill them in of the accomplishments of the retreat. We were encouraged by their responses to the decisions that we made. 

One of the less intense parts of the retreat was the pleasant distraction offered to us by sweet Liam and Laney! It is such a joy to have these new team members!