Archive for March, 2010
If you don’t already know, we were invited to live and serve out of a house in Christchurch that was given to YWAM Oxford (a base outside of the city) to use for ministry. We arrived here March 17 + have been cleaning it out over the last two weeks, along with adjusting to life here in NZ! It’s a huge project, but will be worth all the work when it’s all clean and updated. We have a huge TO DO LIST and will be working our tails off to transform the home into a hospitality/mission house. We have lots of ideas for how the space can be used. We’d appreciate prayer on the direction to take + the ideas to pursue! Some ideas including hosting missionaries, staff, Christian travelers, hosting neighborhood Bible studies and gatherings, having house church here, and being available to others in need in general.
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We thought we’d try our hand at the “Audio” update. We’d LOVE to hear your thoughts on this. If everyone likes it we’ll do it again… if it’s too long or nobody wants to sit and listen to us ramble, then maybe will try to stick with typing. Leave your thoughts below.
We are here in Honolulu… aka windy city right now! Check out my blog for a more detailed post!
Tomorrow we depart the continental United States at 1pm, and will stay a few days in Hawaii before arriving in Christchurch, New Zealand. We frequently look at each other, wide-eyed and amazed, and say, “It’s really happening!”
Today is a big day of last minute errands.
Wire transfers to our NZ bank. Print travel itinerary. Sell car (have had trouble selling, might have buyer looking today). Noah get new driver’s license (It will expire next year while we are in NZ). Post office. Laundry. Finish packing suitcases. Pack up Noah’s work computer + ship to NZ! Have our last hang-out sesh with the Crems. Etc. Etc.
It’s amazing. After dreaming, praying, and planning, this time has finally arrived. Next update will either be out of Hawaii or New Zealand! We love you all + appreciate all your concern, prayers, hospitality + friendship. Each one of you. Really. XO
HOW YOU CAN PRAY
- Selling our Car!
- Safe Travels (Denver to LA, LA to Honolulu, Honolulu to Kauai, Kauai to Honolulu, Honolulu to Auckland, Auckland to Christchurch)
- Luggage Not Being Lost!
- Health (fighting off impending colds)
- Peace + encouragement during first few days in CHCH
- People of CHCH
- Good communication + relationship with YWAM Oxford
- Safe travels for our crate shipment!
- Financial Support
Saturday Tonnie and Andy hosted a Good-Bye Brunch for us + we were so blessed by the turnout, support, encouragement + prayers. Thank you friends. You are amazing + will be missed.
Cake made by Cheryl Pyle!
Translation: “I’ll See You Again!”
Yesterday we waved Bon Voyage to our little crate! It’s heading to Los Angeles, then sailing across the sea to a port south of Christchurch, where we will pick it up several weeks from now! We were happy to be referred to Missionary Expediters through another missionary friend! Good prices + good to work with! We’ll let you know if it get there in one piece. Stay tuned!
Planning to come stay with us for a week or two?
Deals are popping up through Air New Zealand. Look up the dates in May for round-trip prices from Denver to Christchurch. About $600! Amazing! (Regular season prices are in the $1200s-$2000)
Six Days!
Tomorrow we ship our crate!! Here are the boys loading our crate into the rental truck, so that the moving company can transfer this into their semi truck tomorrow.
It’s kind of confusing, but the moving company hires a crate transporting semi that is not equipped with any equipment to load a crate from a neighborhood. It is designed to work at loading docks, so we had to rent a truck that offers the same height up as a loading dock. Tomorrow the two trucks will back up into one another and the guys will transfer the crate into the moving semi.
Tonight we pack up the crate. We couldn’t pack it before putting it into the truck because we have to lift it all ourselves. Tomorrow it will be transfered horizontally, rather than vertically. We detached the side panels for easier transfer + packing + will reattach them when finished!
These last few weeks have been crazy busy as we’re preparing for the ACTUAL MOVE. For those of you who don’t know, we finally got our visas back… and they were APPROVED!! Since then we’ve nailed down a solid departure date and it’s coming up so quickly! We will be boarding our flight on Tuesday, March 9th at 1:05 PM and from that point forward, our lives will be turned upside down (and not just because we’re on the bottom of the planet either).
Here are a few of the things we’ve had to do (and are still doing) over the last two weeks to prepare:
1. BUY TICKETS:
Pretty obvious. We’re flying from Denver, to Los Angeles, L.A. to Honolulu, Honolulu to Auckland, and Auckland to Christchurch. We figured after all of the chaos of moving we could use a little time to recoup before diving head-long into the deep-end of a new culture, so we’re staying a few days in Hawaii on our way. Everyone likes to ask about travel times… if we were to do this journey straight through we’d be in the air for about 15 hours. However, with layovers and time changes, it takes almost 2 full days (we leave on the 15th of March and arrive on the 17th – 42 hours later).
2. PLAN CRATE SHIPMENT:
You’d think this would be easy… I mean, it’s just like packing a few boxes and running them down to the UPS store, right? Not even close. Before this process I’d never heard of ISPM-15 Certified Heat Treated Wood, Customs Clearing Brokers, Bills of Lading, LCL, or any of the other foreign terms commonly thrown around in the international freight business. I felt like a complete idiot trying to talk to the expediting company, but we eventually got through it.
At this point we’ve had a special crate built out of bug/fungus/mold/bacteria-free wood, it’s about the size of 2 wide coffins stacked on top of each other (sorry for the awkward visual). This Thursday, it will be filled with our remaining earthly possessions (aside from the stuff we hid in my parent’s basement – thanks Mom and Dad!) loaded in a truck and sent on it’s way. The shipment should take about a month to arrive in NZ whereupon we have to hire a Customs Broker to negotiate our crate through customs, hopefully avoiding a potential month+ fumigation quarantine and any other legal obstacles. It might sound silly, but we wouldn’t mind your prayers for the safe transport of our stuff… thanks!
3. SELL OUR CAR:
We got rid of one car a few months back (Kate’s parents bought it – thanks guys!!) since then we’ve been sharing the Xterra. Not a problem at all, but now that we have to sell that one too… it gets a little more difficult. If we don’t have a car, we can’t do everything else we need to do (see #5), but if we don’t sell it before we go we’re in a bit of a jam… you see the difficulty. We’ve spent the last 2 weeks cleaning, shampooing, fixing, taking photos, posting on CraigsList, fielding calls, showing it to unresponsive buyers… fielding more calls, showing it to more buyers… and freaking out because we only have a week left. Needless to say, we still have it. Praying that the right buyer will come along… ASAP! POSTED HERE If you know anyone in CO in need of an SUV pass it on.
4. SAY BYE TO FRIENDS/FAMILY/GUY DOWN THE STREET:
This is an ongoing process and I’m sure most of our friends are thinking “you’re STILL HERE?!”. It’s hard to believe we’re actually leaving everything we call “normal life” and we’re starting from scratch. To those of you whom we didn’t get to see “one last time”… we love you, we’ll miss you… and come visit us!! (please!)
5. A MILLION OTHER TINY THINGS:
Can’t forget to close this bank account and wire this other money to the new bank in NZ… and book that hotel… and figure out how to get the crate from this house to that warehouse at the right time… and terminate the auto insurance… and pay that last phone bill… and get a power converter… and see this and that person… and do our taxes… and get one last burrito… and…
6. OH, AND WORK:
On top of all of this, Noah is still working doing both freelance projects as well as getting started on his part-time illustration job. Kate jut put her last day of work a few days ago as well…
Beyond all of this, I think the most frustrating thing for us is knowing that though our goal in moving is to “do ministry”, right now we’re too busy MOVING to even think about what it is we’ll actually be doing when we arrive. This, of course, is normal and will only last a season, but it feels like a deviation and a major distraction from our main purpose. It actually reminds us quite a lot of the season of preparing for a wedding. It should be a special time in which the bride-and-groom-to-be are focusing on their personal character and mentally preparing for their union, but it is instead spent going mad trying to plan a huge, expensive party for all of their friends and family. In fact, it’s not unlike real life in which we all spend so much time making provisions for our lives that we forget to actually LIVE THEM to the fullest.
I’d love to have some beautiful conclusion to share… a memorable lesson that you can apply to your own life… but we just don’t yet. We’re in the middle of the madness and we’re continually looking to the Father for each breath of fresh air. We know it won’t last much longer (at least not this part of it) and that gives us much comfort… and, who knows, maybe that’s somehow comforting to you as well.
