Survey Says...We've made a decision!!

After 8 months of survey work, many hours of discussion and heaps of prayer, our team has finally come to a decision!! We are going to be starting the new church plant in the northeast part of Christchurch. This is so exciting for us! We even have to location narrowed down to the exact area of the city. 

We are committed at Shore Community Christian Church in an official capacity until December first of this year. Our team also has visitors coming in December (for us, the entire Huette family!!!). Those factors, combined with the way that life slows down and almost stops in the summer here (summer starts in December), mean that we will wait to leave Auckland until January. 

We praise God for his provision, guidance, and the way that he unified six minds. Though this year has looked different than we had planned, we can not deny God's hand in our work. Originally, we did not plan to start survey work until January of '09, but due to less responsibilities than we anticipated on our internship, we were able to get a head start on that timeline! 

Will you join us now in praying for the people of Christchurch?  

Back to School

On Wednesday I had my first day of school as a teacher! A few blogs ago I mentioned that my qualifications had been approved and that I was able to begin teaching. The process from there is very simple. Last week I walked into a school and told them I was interested in relieving, or substitute teaching. I was directed to the deputy principal who said that they always needed relievers. I was called later that afternoon and asked to relieve! 

Teachers in New Zealand generally get a reliever one day a week so that they can plan and not have to teach. This means that there is high demand for relievers. There is also a huge teacher shortage in Auckland, and in New Zealand in general right now so this also contributes to the high need for relievers. 

Though it is the beginning of the school year for the States, it is the third quarter here. The students were in their routine and I had a very laid back day with year one, which is six year olds, in the morning and year 4, which is 9 year olds, in the afternoon. I had so much fun learning yet another part of New Zealand as I spent the day at school. I was again reminded about how laid back this country is! 

There were a lot of differences between the classrooms I was at in the States and this school, but it might be too soon to make any conclusions to those differences! I will keep you posted as I (hopefully) continue to relieve one or two days a week now that we are done with our survey work. 

Pray for New Zealand

Today there is a parade going on in Auckland, but we will not be going. This parade was started a few years back to help boost enthusiasm about the porn industry in New Zealand. The name of the parade is "Boobs on Bikes." If that leaves you guessing, here is a little more info: 

This parade is a topless parade approved by the city council that goes through the streets of Auckland and Christchurch. This parade is for prostitutes, homosexuals, and people in the porn industry to gather interest and promote their lifestyles. As you may have guessed, most of the women in the parade are wearing close to nothing as they promote what they stand for. 

It has been interesting to hear the news this week talking about the pros and cons of this parade. In some ways, weather the parade happened or not, the purpose has already been achieved. There have been scenes on the news of the parade from last year which gave us a pretty clear shot of what was going on as nothing was blurred out. 

Will you continue to pray with us on how we can best reach a nation that has fallen so far from God? Pray for the men, women and children who are affected not just by this parade, but by the lifestyles that are being celebrated. 

yum yum yum

I recently found two foods that are brand new in New Zealand that have Joe and I very excited! 

The first one was a staple for us when we lived in the States, we were always stocked with these as they are a great on -the-go snack. While we were on the South Island I was at a supermarket and spotted these:

I was so excited, but I thought it must be something that only the South Island had, which didn't make a lot of sense to me. When we got home I saw that the supermarkets in Auckland were carrying the Nature Valley bars now too! 

The other thing we found was very exciting. New Zealand has very good ice cream but a more limited selection of flavours. I found this ice cream last week that has cookie dough (or it is supposed to but I have yet to spot a good cookie dough chunk!) in it! It also has other cookie bits. It tastes a little like Ben and Jerry's! We have been enjoying this new ice cream a lot! 

Our interest in foods and our ability to get some foods hasn't been too hard for us to adjust to. We have been content with whatever we can find, but these two new things are a nice addition to what New Zealand has to offer. I am still waiting on a Taco Bell and I think Joe is looking for some good pizza, but we have found other foods that we didn't eat much of in the States that we now love here! 

I've Been Assessed!

At the end of January I began gathering together a lot of different official documents from the States to send in to the New Zealand Qualifications Assessment team. The purpose in this was to get my degrees assessed to see what I needed to do in order to teach in New Zealand. This process that typically takes about one month is finally completed...seven months later! It was a very long process of waiting but I have been assessed and I am now qualified to teach in New Zealand without needing any further training! This means I can begin teaching as soon as a school needs a reliever, or a substitute. I plan on visiting schools this week to see where I can begin! 

Home Sweet Home!

Sometimes, it just feels so good to be home. After being away for 11 days, it definitely felt good to be home! I think we all felt as tired as Laney and Liam.

This survey trip was different than our first round of trips. We spent a lot more time looking at specific areas and trends in Christchurch and Wellington to help us know which area of each city would be a potential spot for the church plant. We spent considerably less time in the city centers and much more time in the suburbs, looking at each church and talking to as many people as we could to get a feel for the atmosphere of each suburb. I think the team left seeing a lot of the same things and encouraged by what we found and heartbroken for the people in each city who seem so lost. 

(View of Wellington from the water front) 

Along with all of our work, we had many other happenings this time! This was our first survey trip in which we had intentional times of prayer happening and we needed it! We had hundreds of people praying for our team from all around the world, we couldn't have made it through the trip without the prayers. Thank you! 

(Cathedral Square in Christchurch) 

Joe and I left Auckland a few days early to get some time away before the rest of the team arrived. We intended to go snow-skiing for a day, but the night we arrived the Christchurch area received a meter (3 feet) of snow so the mountain was closed! We got to ski for half of the next day instead. While we were in Christchurch, Auckland was preparing for some of the worst weather that is has seen in ten years! Loads of rainfall, 130kmph winds, and some pretty bad storms. Although many flights were cancelled, both of the other couples were able to make it to Christchurch on schedule, but the weather continued to work its way through the country. 

After just arriving in Christchurch, Hamish, our team leader, received word that his grandfather passed away. Being from New Zealand, he was able to leave for part of the trip to be at the funeral with his family. The rest of the team stayed and finished up work in Christchurch. On our last day there, Whitney came down with a high fever and became ill. Joe, Nate, and I worked to keep Whitney healthy, Laney happy, and get all of us to the airport on time as not to miss our flights to Wellington. I flew with Nate and Whitney and Laney while Joe was on a flight that left 20 minutes later, originally with Hamish and Molly and Liam, who had already left. Joe's flight got delayed but he did make it to Wellington only a little later! 

We had other events that made our trip exciting like power-outages, car trouble, and misplaced keys! We were all ready to be home! 

All in all, it was an exciting trip and we learned a lot. We are excited to see how God uses our experiences from the last week, both good and not so good, to teach us! We will be doing our final survey work in West Auckland and will know where we are going by September 1st!