Hello! It is Friday, May 29 at 12:54pm New Zealand time! I think mostly everyone in the States is still enjoying Thursday night! Just an update on what we have been up to since we last wrote...
Monday night we went to the Korean Bible Study again at Auckland University. It's been an awesome experience as we have gotten to know some of the students and build relationships with them. We are making plans to meet up with one of the girls this weekend and she is going to show us around the city that she lives in. That is one thing that we have enjoyed a lot; we are meeting a lot of people and it's awesome to see the relationships build and the doors that are opening through that.
Tuesday night while Keith was gone teaching English to some of the asylum seekers, the girls stayed back (because it is all men there) and we baked him a cake and planned a surprise for him! When Keith came back that night, we had all the lights in the apartment turned off and we kidnapped him as soon as he entered the door. We put a blanket over his head and led him to the back of the apartment where we had a cake and cards that we made waiting for him! The cake said "Happy Father's Day" as we implemented this holiday just for him so that we could show him how much we appreciate him and everything that he does! It must be a really hard job to be the only guy with 4 other girls.. so we do our best to show him how much we appreciate him, despite the pranks that we may pull on him... ;-)
Wednesday night we went to a youth group and collaborated with Brian (the Youth Pastor) and we did skits and shared testimonies with them and we had a blast! It was so much fun and the youth were sooo welcoming and loving towards us! It wasn't a big crowd that night because of lot of them were sick, so it was very personal and intimate. The kids that we did meet were so mature for their age. A lot of them were refugees themselves and had come from the Middle East or South Africa. We are planning on helping with their Youth Group a few times next week as well and we are really excited for that!
Last night, Thursday, we met again with the refugees for the Bible study and it was a very unique night. The discussion was awesome because they were truly seeking answers to challenging questions and it was a great opportunity for some of the people on our team to share our hearts and answers that we have to them. It is amazing to see them every week and watch the relationships build and see how their trust in us is growing.
Today we woke up and went down the street at 9am to a Women's Rehabilitation Center to help clean and do anything they need help with. They drove four giant vans around and we cleaned all of them inside and out. Also, we cleaned the walls in one of the apartments that a family is staying in because they are painting the walls soon. We felt a lot of heavy spirits in that room and we were very sensitive to know that some things have happened in there before. Please pray for that facility and anything that might have happened that it will be washed with the blood of Jesus.
That brings us to where we are right now! Tomorrow is our free day and we are going to go relax at a beach with Brian, the Youth Pastor that we have been working with! It has been a lot of fun building relationships with the locals and other missionaries around Mangere (the city we are living in).
We have also been torn between the decision to either adopt or kidnap one of the little Korean children who are staying here on the base. He has played Ninja Warrior games with some of us this week and when he came by our apartment this morning, he looked at Dana and clung onto her for dear life and would not let her go. Even when we tried to leave, Amy tried to undo his grip of death and he ended up just being suspended in the air and wrapping his legs around Dana. This is the one moment we seriously regretted not having our cameras! It broke all of our hearts as the love that he was showing us was incredible. It's amazing how much you affect the children that you are around and don't even realize it!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support! We love and miss you all! Also, a special thanks goes out to Mr. Wigner who provided our team with a GPS and a map package for New Zealand! That has been our lifeline and has saved us from so many unneeded adventures of touring around New Zealand lost! Thanks so much! Until next time.....
God Bless,
Stacie
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Pink Toes & Dog Bites
Hello Again!
Just an update of what the Lord has been doing in New Zealand! This past week, we were working alongside a few Korean families who are also living in the base who are in a KDTS (Korean Discipleship Training School) program which is through the YWAM ministry. They were preparing almost a week of Vacation Bible School type outreaches to the local children, but they needed more English speaking people to help. It was an awesome opportunity for us to work together with these families, get to know them, and minister to the children. We learned a lot about the body of Christ- no matter who you are with, you are all working together on the SAME team, for the same purpose and goal!
Today we drove two hours up north to a church called "Church on The Road" and they handed the service over to us for the morning. We led worship, Jackie and Amy shared their testimonies, we performed a drama that our team created orginally, and Keith brought the Word for everyone! One of the women in attendance was touched by Jackie's testimony as she could see that her daughter was going through a similiar situation that related to her tesimony. It was amazing to see what purpose God had in us leading that service, even if it was just for that one woman. In addition, it was such a beautiful drive up there! The most beautiful green grass right under the brighest blue skies, and beautiful mountains and land everywhere!
Jackie has specially requested to add the fact that when we were in the neighborhood handing out flyers for a church service, and she was chased down by a dog and he bit her foot! Well, more realistically, her shoe! Haha... It was an exciting day. Please pray for our protection and safety as the neighborhood that we are living in is not entirely safe. There are local gangs and at night it is pretty dangerous. Dana would like to add that as she has been taking pictures for the missions program, many of the children can't help but throw gang symbols in the pictures. Therefore Dana has concluded that many of these pictures will be deleted.
I am absolutely loving our little family of five as we are growing closer together to each other and the Lord. It's amazing as we are learning more and more of why God had brought us together. All of the many introductions and retelling of our personal stories is a constant reminder of why we are here and why God specifically chose us to come to this very place. I am learning so much from each and every one of them!
To end this post, I want to add that Keith is the ultimate Dad! He tells the girls bedtime stories before they go to sleep, he wakes us all up in the morning at each of our desired times, and he is always ready to anticipate our needs of when we will need our next fix of gum. To show our appreciation, upon his falling asleep on the couch one evening, Amy took the liberty of painting his toenails a beautiful hot pink color. We have no nailpolish remover in our apartment, and it has been almost a week and his toes still remain this color. It concerns us only a little that he is not bothered by this at all, it seems. It does come back to bite us when we are in public places, such as the beach, and his shoes are off and innocent pedestrians notice his femininity (sp?). But as I said before, he is an awesome Dad! He does a lot of the cooking and cleaning, and will cook each of us a personalized order of eggs just how we like it.
More to come when we update next! Thank you for your prayers and support! We love and miss you all!
Stacie
Team New Z!
P.S. We would love to upload images, but the wireless internet is very slow, and it would take about 20mins to upload a single picture, so we will try to add some when we have more time =)
Just an update of what the Lord has been doing in New Zealand! This past week, we were working alongside a few Korean families who are also living in the base who are in a KDTS (Korean Discipleship Training School) program which is through the YWAM ministry. They were preparing almost a week of Vacation Bible School type outreaches to the local children, but they needed more English speaking people to help. It was an awesome opportunity for us to work together with these families, get to know them, and minister to the children. We learned a lot about the body of Christ- no matter who you are with, you are all working together on the SAME team, for the same purpose and goal!
Today we drove two hours up north to a church called "Church on The Road" and they handed the service over to us for the morning. We led worship, Jackie and Amy shared their testimonies, we performed a drama that our team created orginally, and Keith brought the Word for everyone! One of the women in attendance was touched by Jackie's testimony as she could see that her daughter was going through a similiar situation that related to her tesimony. It was amazing to see what purpose God had in us leading that service, even if it was just for that one woman. In addition, it was such a beautiful drive up there! The most beautiful green grass right under the brighest blue skies, and beautiful mountains and land everywhere!
Jackie has specially requested to add the fact that when we were in the neighborhood handing out flyers for a church service, and she was chased down by a dog and he bit her foot! Well, more realistically, her shoe! Haha... It was an exciting day. Please pray for our protection and safety as the neighborhood that we are living in is not entirely safe. There are local gangs and at night it is pretty dangerous. Dana would like to add that as she has been taking pictures for the missions program, many of the children can't help but throw gang symbols in the pictures. Therefore Dana has concluded that many of these pictures will be deleted.
I am absolutely loving our little family of five as we are growing closer together to each other and the Lord. It's amazing as we are learning more and more of why God had brought us together. All of the many introductions and retelling of our personal stories is a constant reminder of why we are here and why God specifically chose us to come to this very place. I am learning so much from each and every one of them!
To end this post, I want to add that Keith is the ultimate Dad! He tells the girls bedtime stories before they go to sleep, he wakes us all up in the morning at each of our desired times, and he is always ready to anticipate our needs of when we will need our next fix of gum. To show our appreciation, upon his falling asleep on the couch one evening, Amy took the liberty of painting his toenails a beautiful hot pink color. We have no nailpolish remover in our apartment, and it has been almost a week and his toes still remain this color. It concerns us only a little that he is not bothered by this at all, it seems. It does come back to bite us when we are in public places, such as the beach, and his shoes are off and innocent pedestrians notice his femininity (sp?). But as I said before, he is an awesome Dad! He does a lot of the cooking and cleaning, and will cook each of us a personalized order of eggs just how we like it.
More to come when we update next! Thank you for your prayers and support! We love and miss you all!
Stacie
Team New Z!
P.S. We would love to upload images, but the wireless internet is very slow, and it would take about 20mins to upload a single picture, so we will try to add some when we have more time =)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Hello from New Zealand!
Friends and Family!
Thank you for being patient as we have not been able to get on the computers yet! At the YWAM base here, there are two computers and they are not very fast and we have to pay $1NZD for every 15minutes that we are online. But we will make due with what we have!
The YWAM base that we are staying at is in Mangere, which is a town right outside Auckland. We have had some time to adjust and get our barrings set because we crossed the International Date Line and I think we are a day ahead of the rest of the world, haha. [Currently it is 10:38am on Friday, May 15].
It has been a lot of fun truly living as a family in the apartment within the base that we are in. We have a little kitchen area and we cook all of our meals with the unlimited bread supply that is available for us. Unfortunately, we have realized that living by carbs alone is not the best idea. So we will try to modify that the next time we go grocery shopping!
Last night was one of the most amazing nights. We went to a hostel for Refugees who are seeking asylum (sp?). There were 6 men and 2 women (that we met, I'm sure there are many more) and one baby from Iraq/Iran/Afganistan/Ethiopia. Most of them were all converted Christians which was amazing, however some are still Muslim or beginning to find curiosity in Christianity. We sat in a Bible Study with them that was led by an American missionary couple. It was amazing to worship with them and hear their hearts cry out for Jesus! Please pray for them, as they have interviews and appeal dates coming up. They are scared to death of being sent back to their country, and it's easy to see the stress and worry on their faces. But they are strong in seeking the Lord and learning more about Christ. It was amazing to be apart of that.
We have also gone to a Children's School and spent time with them during the after school program which was so amazing and we are actually going back today! We will be attending a Youth group service tonight at LIFE Church. A few days ago we met with a Youth Pastor from a different church and they are handing over a Youth service to us in a week or two, so it was really fun to sit down and plan the whole night with them. We will be performing our drama and giving testimonies and having a huge role in the flow of the evening.
We have learned to be VERY flexible with our schedule as it has already changed many times since we have been here. I would love to tell you what the next three weeks entail, but I really don't know yet! We have been kept very busy. Yesterday we planted plants around the base and will do more work around there today.
We have been able to do some beautiful sight seeing, and I mean BEAUTIFUL! Some of the mountains that we went on took our breath away. This has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Every week, Saturday is our free day and we are not sure yet what we are going to do tomorrow. I think for now we are going to do more sight seeing since it is so beautiful here and the many photographers on our team are going crazy!
Keith has been getting practice driving on the left side of the road! We at first were all scared to death because he seemed to be gainign confidence a little too quickly, haha. However, he is doing very well and we trust him with our lives, literally!
Please continue to pray for our contacts and the other Korean families that are staying on the YWAM base as well. Also, the individuals seeking asylum are in need of a lot of prayer. I can't imagine the stress and fear that they are currently facing.
We will try to update again soon!
God Bless
Keith & Stacie
Team New Zealand 2009
Thank you for being patient as we have not been able to get on the computers yet! At the YWAM base here, there are two computers and they are not very fast and we have to pay $1NZD for every 15minutes that we are online. But we will make due with what we have!
The YWAM base that we are staying at is in Mangere, which is a town right outside Auckland. We have had some time to adjust and get our barrings set because we crossed the International Date Line and I think we are a day ahead of the rest of the world, haha. [Currently it is 10:38am on Friday, May 15].
It has been a lot of fun truly living as a family in the apartment within the base that we are in. We have a little kitchen area and we cook all of our meals with the unlimited bread supply that is available for us. Unfortunately, we have realized that living by carbs alone is not the best idea. So we will try to modify that the next time we go grocery shopping!
Last night was one of the most amazing nights. We went to a hostel for Refugees who are seeking asylum (sp?). There were 6 men and 2 women (that we met, I'm sure there are many more) and one baby from Iraq/Iran/Afganistan/Ethiopia. Most of them were all converted Christians which was amazing, however some are still Muslim or beginning to find curiosity in Christianity. We sat in a Bible Study with them that was led by an American missionary couple. It was amazing to worship with them and hear their hearts cry out for Jesus! Please pray for them, as they have interviews and appeal dates coming up. They are scared to death of being sent back to their country, and it's easy to see the stress and worry on their faces. But they are strong in seeking the Lord and learning more about Christ. It was amazing to be apart of that.
We have also gone to a Children's School and spent time with them during the after school program which was so amazing and we are actually going back today! We will be attending a Youth group service tonight at LIFE Church. A few days ago we met with a Youth Pastor from a different church and they are handing over a Youth service to us in a week or two, so it was really fun to sit down and plan the whole night with them. We will be performing our drama and giving testimonies and having a huge role in the flow of the evening.
We have learned to be VERY flexible with our schedule as it has already changed many times since we have been here. I would love to tell you what the next three weeks entail, but I really don't know yet! We have been kept very busy. Yesterday we planted plants around the base and will do more work around there today.
We have been able to do some beautiful sight seeing, and I mean BEAUTIFUL! Some of the mountains that we went on took our breath away. This has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Every week, Saturday is our free day and we are not sure yet what we are going to do tomorrow. I think for now we are going to do more sight seeing since it is so beautiful here and the many photographers on our team are going crazy!
Keith has been getting practice driving on the left side of the road! We at first were all scared to death because he seemed to be gainign confidence a little too quickly, haha. However, he is doing very well and we trust him with our lives, literally!
Please continue to pray for our contacts and the other Korean families that are staying on the YWAM base as well. Also, the individuals seeking asylum are in need of a lot of prayer. I can't imagine the stress and fear that they are currently facing.
We will try to update again soon!
God Bless
Keith & Stacie
Team New Zealand 2009
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