Day 5

Well hello! We are settled in and school has begun. This weekend we spent time on the beach (just a block away), played volleyball, met up with old friends and met some new ones.


Our house is really nice and we share it with 2 other couples. One couple is from Germany but they are missionaries in India and another couple is from Minneapolis where they are missionaries. Joy and I have a sweet room. Our house is fully equipped with all the latest amenities including a dishwasher.

Today was our first day of school and it was basically introductory. We are going to be quite busy and everyday will be different. We will be sitting through lectures, doing service projects in the community, working on creative projects according to our giftings (I get to do some web stuff for steiger and No Longer Music), evangelistic events in Wellington and other ministry workshops.


I just got back from a Maori event. Since that Maori are the native people of New Zealand we went to meet them as a symbol of gaining their permission to be on their island. They put on a show for us and fed us. It was very cultural experience. People here tell me I need to see the movie Whale Rider to understand the Maori Culture.

Yesterday Aaron, a couple other guys and myself chased sheep! It was crazy. Unfortunately one of them kept running into a barbed wire fence trying to get away from us. He did it about 3 times! Sheep truly are stupid. We felt really bad for him so we left him alone.

We were with sheep because we had a barbeque out in the 'bush' after we went for a 'bushwalk'. B-E-A-utiful! The woods in New Zealand are surreal. Its like living in The Lord of the Rings movies.

Tomorrow we have school in the morning and David will give us our first lecture. There are people from all over the world here; Poland, Brazil, Finland, US, New Zealand and Germany.

We made it!!

We have arrived in NZ! Currently internet access is not convenient. I don't have time to update you but all is well! Its amazing down here! More to come...

LA

I am typing at LAX airport in the concourse 1/2 hour before we board!!!!! Yes! Joy and I are very excited. Thank you for your prayers and support. I feel very humbled to be so blessed.

Today Joy and I spend the day in LA since we had a 10+ hour layover. We rode on the LA public transportation system... wow... what an experience. I have to say I felt more safe in Sao Paulo. A fight almost started on our bus!!! Some guy with a 'fro spit on another guy and they both stood up and began to threaten each other. The guy who recieved the spitting accepted the threat to fight and proceeded to take off his shirt. I don't know why. I think he wanted to show his tatoos and flex to create fear. It was quite the experience.

Joy and I ate at In and Out Burger and we walked to Venice Beach and watched the sun go down. Beautiful!

Now I am doing my nerd tasks on my laptop and she is sleeping on the floor in the concourse. We are sooooo tired! We only got about 2 hours sleep last night and have been traveling since 4 AM. Thank you to my brother Dan for picking us up at 4 AM. Now we have the big 12 hour flight to Auckland, an hour flight to Wellington and an hour train ride to Waikanae. I hope to get some sleep tonight on the plane.

HEY! I have a local phone number for you to call us... its (952) 232-0658. This is a 'skype' number which means we pay .02 a minute for each connected call. If you do not connect with us you can leave us a voice-mail. Who is going to be the first to leave us a voice mail????? I'll let you know who the winner is when there is one.

Alright... When you hear from me again I will be DOWN UNDER!! All for Jesus!

The Lord will supply all my needs, according to His riches in glory...

I had a wonderful time at Homebuilders (our young married small group) last night as Joy and I recieved prayer and very encouraging and loving words from friends there. Thank you guys!

Then after that I received a phone call that my cousin Ben had the flu really bad. So I went to pick him up at Bethel University and it was bad. He was pale white and he had a very difficult time on the 40 minute drive to Mound. His legs were hurting really bad and he threw up in a bucket. Poor guy!

Then I went to my buddy Jeremy's house and hung out with him and some of our Bethel friends.

Joy worked at Teen Challenge last night and today she is working at Chevy's restaurant. What a trooper!

Praise the Lord! He does provide! Why do I spend so much time doubting? We didn't think we could get a renter for our hosue and we got one (before we started advertising). We were concerned that those we are in community with would not be supportive and
everyone has been extremely supportive!

And only 4 days ago we needed over $2,000 to cover our tuition and today we need only a little over $1,000.

I will continue to update the graph on the right side of the screen. The tuition covers the school, our housing and all of our meals for entire time we are there. The expenses part of the pie cover our other travel expenses. Those expense dollars will become critical toward the end of our trip. If you want more details about this let me know.

I also added link to make a donation via paypal (the transfer service that eBay uses). This service allows you make a donation via credit card or your bank account. Unfortunately this will not be a tax deductable donation. We leave February 22 so if you would like to make a donation through Chapel Hill Church please mail your check to:

Chapel Hill Church
4888 Pilot Knob Rd
Eagan, MN 55122

Please include a note designating the check for Peter and Joy Missionary Training.

Minnehaha

This morning I am speaking at Minnehaha Academy! I will write how it went. In the meantime please pray for me. I speak at 11:23 AM.

8 Days

I got an e-mail today from United Airlines that our flight from LA to MSP was changed to leave an hour earlier. Not good!

You see, I reserved tickets from MSP to LA and LA to New Zealand separately. On the flight back we were arrive in LA at 2:40PM and leave at 4:45PM and since I ordered the tickets separately we need to claim our baggage go through customs, go to United's ticket desk, check our bags again, get our boarding passes and go through security again. Between 2:40 and 4:45 we should be able to accomplish all that. BUT, they changed our flight to MSP to leave at 3:30. wah-wah-wah... (the sad trumpet sound)

So... I called United and after 2 hours of waiting and being transfered to the right department and trying to get the agent to understand my problem she told me there was nothing they could do short of sending us the next day! Until I said, "well, I am in a real jam then." And she said, "Try to call Air New Zealand since they made the mistake." And I said, "No, United changed their schedule." And she said, "Oh.... hold on." Then she got us tickets that leave at 11:59 PM May 11. Phew! Its better than leaving the next day.

This may be a little blessing in disquise... a little "Surprise Me God" moment (although I forgot to pray that this morning)... because we may be able to see Joy's brother and sister-in-law during that time. If not Joy has some other friends we could possibly see. Who knows!

Well, I am not feeling good today. I was in Walmart getting materials for a skit I am putting together for our youth ministry fundraiser and I felt like I was going to fall over or something. I was really dizzy. I have a rehearsal tonight so I am at home resting so that I can be as good as I can be tonight.

By the way, you should attend the fundraiser if you can on March 11 from 5:30 to 9:00. We have TONS of products up on a silent auction!! Its only $5. Check out Chapel Hill's website (link is on the right sidebar).

9 Days

Wow, we have 9 days left until we leave for New Zealand. I feel as though I am coming to the end of the task of wrapping up my loose ends here. I still have a lot of work to accomplish but it will be done. Joy is working her second to last Monday night at Teen Challenge. They will have to let go of her position while she is gone and then she will have to reapply when we return. I don't expect that to be a problem because she is fitting in very well there and it seems to be where she should be.

We are still in need of some money in order to cover our costs. Money has come in but we still need a little over $4,000. Tuition is $3,000 and that covers our room and board for the schooling. We have recieved $965 which has cut tuition down to $2,035. All recieved funds will go towards tuition first and our expenses second. We are extremely grateful to all for your contributions and prayers for Joy and I.

I am excited to begin sharing with you all that Joy and I are learning at the school in New Zealand. I know that we will be attending many lectures from missionaries that are working all over the world. We will be trained in support raising, evangelism, living in a dangerous situation, etc. We also will be doing many service projects and putting on many evangelistic events in the Wellington area. Many of the individuals that are going to be at the school are very creative people and strong men and women of God. I am excited to be working with them on projects and events.

I will write more later! Thank you for your prayers!