See You in New Zealand!

This week we were able to spend time with our team one last time before we all leave for New Zealand. The week began with all of us traveling from our respective homes with anything and everything that we hope to see again in New Zealand to pack it into a crate in Indiana. We have been very blessed through our teammates, Nate and Whitney, in getting a crate. They are supported by a company that ships crates internationally, including to New Zealand. This company, Wood-Mizer, was able to double the size of the crate we had planned on getting, and cut the cost in half. Our team was able to share this crate with plenty of extra room!



After a rainy day of packing, we were blessed to go to dinner with John and Katy Pierce. John is a member of our sending organization, South Pacific Christian Fellowship. They treated us to dinner at The Spaghetti Factory in Indianapolis. After dinner they took us back into a private room to give us a send off. John and Katy had prepared a devotion to share with us about being sent out. Included with this devotion was prayer, a song that they sang, and a time of commissioning. As a reminder of why we are going to New Zealand, John and Katy had brought International Harvester hats to give each of us. It was very meaningful and very encouraging to know that they have so much faith in our team and the journey we are embarking on.

We spent Tuesday through Thursday meeting family! We were able to spend two nights on the Vance farm in Ohio. The Vance's are Molly's family and we were looking forward to learn about life on the farm, but unfortunately, the rain from Monday came even harder on Tuesday and Wednesday! We enjoyed our time inside with playing games and enjoying a great home-cooked meal with Molly's family.

After spending two days with Molly's family, we went to Columbus to meet Whitney's family. Unfortunately, her mom was ill and her dad needed to stay home to take care of her so we did not get to meet Mr. and Mrs. Maige. We did, however, enjoy getting to know the rest of Whitney's family over dinner and games that evening.

We ended the week Thursday morning making plans for being picked up from the airport in New Zealand! We had a long time of prayer and hugs. During prayer, Nate used an analogy that I feel like resembles how we all feel right now. His prayer was, "God, I feel like we are standing on the edge of a cliff, about to jump off, we are waiting for you to catch us!" We take such encouragement in knowing that God will not only catch us, but guide us until we land!

The goodbye to our team was not sad, but exciting! This is what we have been working for. We have been able to meet most of the team's family members throughout the last six months. Though we all love our families, and will miss them dearly, we feel as though our team is like a family. We love them and know that we have a long, exciting, and unknown road in front of us. We will work through things like a family, hold each other up like a family, and be there for each other like a family. We continually thank God for the blessing of our team in our lives.