Now whichever anti-Christian group uses this as ammunition on the war on Christmas…

…at least communist China and other athiestic countries still like Christmas…

…but at least America isn’t guilty of this explicit abuse of Christmas!

All things considered, the trip really did go well. We all made it back…no plane crashes or any nasty little tricks like that…and we get to sleep in our own beds. Now if somebody could just do something about the heat out here…

See you in a couple of days!

Group picture from Paratutu our first Saturday here.

Friday was a bit slower of a day. The group I was with had no positive responses, basically. The best conversation that I had all day was with a Jehovah’s Witness who shared some great revelations with me, including, but not limited to:

on the day of Christ’s appearing, He will be invisible. I asked, “So you’re telling me that He won’t appear on the day of His appearing?”

I asked why she uses the JW New World Translation. She explained to me that the god of the present age infiltrated the other translations. So I asked why I shouldn’t believe the same thing happened to hers. She explained that God has (and this is a direct quote) special slaves whom He tells His word to that make sure their translation is accurate. Interesting, since the NWT has not been around for their entire history. Sometime, read what they’ve done with John 8 and Christ’s claim of being “I am” over the years.

Our afternoon Bible study cancelled on us to finish off the day. So, we’re all glad that Saturday is here and we have a day to regroup before going out for our last two days of doorknocking. We’ve put out nearly 20,000 free book offers and 4,000 Gospel Minutes articles now, along with various other studies. Every day when we check the mail we have several of those book offers returned, so it has been neat to watch that work.

For the day off: dinner with our host family and maybe horseback riding or dam dropping.

Nothing much interesting happened today. We letterboxed quite a bit and got several more responses back in the mail. Our total of free book offers is somewhere above 15,000 distributed. We’ve sent out 4,000ish Gospel Minutes and door knocked more than 1,500 doors. So, I’m tired.

Talked with an athiest fellow for about 20 minutes who had four children. His main reason for athiesm was suffering of mankind. To his credit, he sends his kids to Sunday School because He wants them to grow up and have a choice when it comes to spirituality.

Was yelled at through a window by a person screaming “Go away! God is dead!”

Talked to an 18 year-old mother who wants to know for sure if there is a God so she can raise her daughter.

Today, we talked to a guy for about an hour who describes himself as still having a small spark of spiritual interest, believing that there is probably a God. He feels distant from him; as he put it, when he prays, it is like talking to Santa Claus. He likes a lot of Christianity’s ideals, but knows how hard they are to implement in life as we know it. He also doesn’t understand how Christians can eat meat, because of the cruelty of how animals are slaughtered. He knows that scripture teaches it, but said, “I just can’t see Jesus eating meat.”

Another fellow wasn’t very interested in Bible study because his family was into translating Bibles. In the mid 1800s, that is.

Well, I think that’s all the fun for now. Tomorrow’s Wednesday–Kevin Moore and family are coming, and we’ve got class to teach.

Off to another full day of door knocking!

It is quite different to be at a camp with a very significant portion of the Christians in an entire nation, and still not even come close to the size of Camp Kalos. Friday night we enjoyed getting to know each other and a devotional. Saturday morning was letterboxing Wanganui, which didn’t take too long since we had probably 70 people working. The afternoon was filled with injury-prone rugby games, hikes at the beach with waterfalls running into the ocean, and a trip to town to souveneir shop. We had worship and Bible study together at camp this morning, as well.

This week is five full days of door knocking, our last full week in New Zealand. Rachel and I have a Bible study with a family we met set up for Tuesday evening, and there are two more planned from other teams on Monday. We’ve had a great response to the book offer we’ve been distributing, and things really are going well. We just have to survive the rest of the door slams, now! :) We’ve managed so far…it will be a good and productive week, I’m sure.

Have a great Sunday!

We leave tomorrow for camp in Whanganui (sp?). It’s a youth camp for all the churches of Christ in New Zealand, basically. We’ll be there until Sunday. The weekend will be filled with food & fun, of course, but will also have several hours of outreach in the town there, since no teams are stationed there for this trip.

So, this is my last post until Sunday evening, our time. Have a great one!

Yeah.

Our group set two more Bible studies today and a correspondence course, with several other follow up opportunities generated and quite a few people interested in the book offer. It was a good day.

Tomorrow begins the doorknocking. I’ll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I need sleep.

Sunday we had our worship services. Chris did a great job preaching. Paavo and I survived teaching 6-10 yeard olds. The fellowship meal had all sorts of interesting and good food. We played 9ish holes of golf in the afternoon and then had a men’s meeting in the evening.

On Monday morning, we went ocean kayaking in the winter. I think we must all be getting dumber–but it was a lot of fun. The water wasn’t that cold… it was great! After that, we went to a free zoo and park and enjoyed some good hiking, while Paavo performed some acrobatics for us. Back to Rod’s house for a pick-up game of touch Rugby, supper, and then fireworks downtown for the day.

Tomorrow will be chock full of letterboxing and doorknocking–as will the rest of the week, even on the way to the youth camp on Friday. It’ll be great. Talk to you later!

Our group met together at Rod’s house for fish and chips for lunch. Probably am going to die a day or two younger now, but that’s okay. Then we left to go to a local rugby game. I think I am a little more understanding of Roman Gladiator battles now…but it sure was an interesting game. At the end of the first lower-level local game, Paavo ran out onto the field and got at the end of the “good game” line. He managed to get handshakes, slaps, and hugs from most of the opposition! He thinks most of them thought he was a trainer or something.

We went on to the next game, a more important game…and watched most of it. It really was an interesting game, and only one person got pulled off on a stretcher. There was a local couple that was rather…amorous…during the game, sitting on the sidelines on a hill. The girl was facing the man, a bit distracted, when she was hit square in the backside by an out of bounds kick. Now that was funny.

After the games, we drove down to the beach. [Come to find out, the house I'm staying in is only a few hundred yards away from a beach! Who knows what that is in metric...] We took pictures on a gorgeous scenic overlook, and then hiked down towards the black sand beach. A few of the guys braved running/skidding/sliding down the sand dune to the ocean. The rest of us took the stairs…

The beach was gorgeous, waves breaking against the rocks and cliffs. There was a tiny waterfall and neat inlets in the rock sea wall. You could see parts of large mountains all around and there were a few little islands in the water that were gorgeous. Of course, we all had fun daring the sea to see how close we could get to it without getting wet. You already know how that game turned out.

The climb back up the steps was something else-even Paavo and Leslie slowed down on the way up them. Something [unholy] inspired the “men” of the group to go climb the little hill/mountain Paratutu. It was a very steep climb with a steel cable as a hand hold for parts of it. Some parts were an easy walk, some were stairs, and some were near-vertical rock climbs. The climb left me feeling like my heart was going to explode-but the view was worth it. We could see Mt. Teranaki (i think), a huge snow-capped mountain on the horizon, as the clouds had lifted. I think that it is an 8,000 foot mountain. It was gorgeous. You could see most of New Plymouth from there as well as the ocean to the horizon. Absolutely breathtaking.

The climb back down was harrowing. Didn’t know whether to climb it backwards like a ladder, or slide down on my rear and pray for some sort of traction and hand-eye coordination. Somehow, we all survived. My legs still hurt.

After the climb, we enjoyed supper ["tea"] at the Jensen’s house, where Chris and Todd are staying. Fish and chips again. I’m going to die very soon, but it was worth it. Paavo and I got our first taste of New Zealand’s wonderful ice cream. It might be the death of us, but we’re okay with that…

After dinner we gathered at another home for watching Rugby on TV. I guess we’re hooked now. We watched the national British Lions barely edge out a divisonal NZ team. Quite entertaining. Only one got taken out on the golf cart, that time!

All in all, it was a great day, and our group had a great time getting some relaxation and taking in the sights. Rod said it was good for us to have our day off at this time during the trip, because today and tomorrow are when jet lag begins to nail us. We’ve all been waking up very early in the morning and getting tired pretty early, too. He described a lot of the work that is still ahead of us as “soul destroying” because of the response we will get. Even in letterboxing, we’ve begin to get a taste of it. I walked past a fellow on the street, we exchanged greetings, and I asked him if he’d like a flyer that I was handing out. His response was, “It better not be Jesus Christ!”

We’re certainly not in the Bible belt anymore. The friendly wave is met with a stare a lot of the time…and you can tell people want to know what’s wrong with these crazy Americans. All in all, people have been good to us, and there’s great work ahead. Tomorrow, Chris is preaching and we’re teaching the classes before we enjoy a fellowship meal with the entire congregation.

All for now–have a great night!

Yesterday was a very good day. We spent most all of the very cold day outside letterboxing. I think our grand total of literature distributed is already close to 7,000. Yesterday, as we worked, we got caught in two or three hail storms with hail stones just over pea size. Those things stung pretty badly in a nice, driving wind. It is amazing that it will hail hard enough to turn the ground pretty close to white for about 5 minutes…then just quit and be beautiful and sunny, with a sky full of rainbows. I saw probably 3 different rainbows across yesterday, one that was complete and even had a rainbow “shadow” next to it. Gorgeous!

Today is our “day off.” We’re using it to catch up a little on sleep, as we’re told this is when jet lag is supposed to kick in. We’re getting ready to teach the kid’s classes tomorrow. Paavo and I have the 6-10 year olds. That will be interesting…. I get to preach on Sunday, June 19…so I’m very excited about that.

All in all, we’re having a great time. No injuries or major problems thus far. Today we get to take in some sights and have a great time. Maybe even eat some more kiwis (the fruit, not the bird or the people….)

Have a great day!
Matthew

We’re in New Zealand, alive and well. You probably heard that our flights were messed up. Our first flight from Memphis to Phoenix was delayed, causing us to miss our connecting flight to LA, and thus, potentially missing our 9:30 flight to Auckland, NZ. Fortunately, we all fit on a later flight to LA and there was virtually no one on a later 11:30 flight to NZ. That meant we had lots of room to sleep and move around. The flights were all a bit on the bumpy side, but our luggage pretty much all arrived on time and everything went well. Angie was delayed because of some problems with her visa, but is in the country now, we think. After arriving in Wellington, our final air destination, we had probably 6 more hours on the road to drive to New Plymouth.

By the way, it is 7:15 here. Compare that with whatever the post clock says central time. We began our first day of work this morning after a good night’s sleep in our host family. I’m staying with the Blackman family, along with Paavo. They have been absolutely wonderful, and the New Zealand food isn’t half bad.

We began this morning, as we will every morning, with a devotional. We are working with evangelist Rod Kyle. After devotion, he leads us in a personal work class, detailing what to expect here in NZ and how to react to situations we have been faced with. We spent most of today letterboxing (leaving flyers in mailboxes–yes, it’s legal here).

The country is beautiful–even when the weather is not. The plus side of the on and off rain during sunshine is the beautiful rainbow that we see so often. It is a gorgeous place, just a little cool, but not too bad. You should
see it. And there are lots and lots of sheep. Our host family has one…as a pet! Haven’t eaten any yet….

We’re starting to understand a little bit more of what people are saying, and most of us don’t flinch…as much…when we’re driving on the other side of the road. We’ve also picked up a renewed appreciation for mind-numbing puzzles you find in newspapers. We’re all addicted, and very bad.

Thanks for everything–our trip is going great. We’ve certainly been blessed.

Take it easy, I’ll write when I can….. see you in a month!

(By the way, go to the annoying game’s website…)

Here’s the itenerary:

• America West Airlines 30 May Memphis Intl -> Phoenix [Sky Harbor Int] 2:20 P 3:43 PM (Local time). HP 6443 Economy. 3:23 Duration. Canadair regional jet 900.
• America West Airlines 30 May Phoenix AZ -> Los Angeles CA 4:19 P 5:42 P HP32 1:23 Duration. Airbus Industrie A319
• Air New Zealand 30 May Los Angeles -> Auckland, NZ 9:30 P 5:15A 01 June. NZ 1. 12:45 duration. Boeing 747-400
• Air New Zealand 01 June Auckland -> Wellington 7:00 AM 8:00 AM NZ405 1:00 duration. Boeing 737-30
• Return- Air New Zealand 22 June Wellington -> Auckland 5:30P 6:30PM 1:00 Duratoin. NZ464 Boeing 737-300
• Air New Zealand 22 June Auckland-> LA NZ6 7:45PM 12:40PM 11:55 duration. Boeing 747-400
• America West 22 June LA->Phoenix 3:50PM 5:10PM HP30 1:20 Duration. Airbus Industrie A319
• America West 22 June Phoenix->Memphis 6:00PM-10:57PM HP6398 2:57 Duration Canadair Regional Jet 900