Livin the Dream because of Psalm 37:4 - Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. I believe that's because my desires become his desires. His dreams are my dreams - namely seeing the world come to faith. It is an adventure for sure, especially in NZ.
So we'll start this one out with a few special shout outs... please, don't anybody feel excluded. The first goes to Third West Wengatz for the title of this post because I really have dreamed of doing something like this for years, and the second goes to Scotty Scott Scott Mason and his posse for being the first to "follow" this blog even when there wasn't jack squat to see or read. Until now.
A few things before we get rollin'. As Kyle Lantz can verify, when I write like this it's often in a "stream of consciousness format" meaning when something comes to mind, I'll jot it down. Which means I could be writing about why I still tell people I'm from Northeast Michigan when they might not even know where Michigan is, and how I think the never-before-seen-by-me Red Beaked Gull has such a lovely pure white feather tone - in the same paragraph. Enough fribbery.
So yes, the flight over went well and was fairly uneventful. Except for Customs in New Zealand having to wash my tent and my hiking boots because there was dirt on them... And jet lag really wasn't an issue either believe it or not, though it was about 22 hours total of flying. The 14 hour flight from LA to Sydney was during the night so I slept when I could and hit the sack as I usually would the day after I got here. The first few nights were in a hostel downtown, and now in a flat with a mate named Ryan, who just happens to like the Dukes of Hazzard (the old show) and Night Rider. Go figure. Needless to say we get along famously. I met Ryan at Equippers Church the Sunday after I got here and to be honest I couldn't say enough good things about this church. It truly was an answer to prayer. Yours and mine. Just so many people that love Jesus and are genuinely interested in why I'm here and what I'm doing. An incredibly diverse congregation as well which is fantastic. There really aren't many people here from the states at all. My initial friends I met in the hostel were from Germany, Belgium, Italy, Canada, the UK, etc. I love it.
So just know that I've seen your prayers at work. I wasn't on the ground for 50 minutes and got to talking with a few girls from Canada inline waiting to go through customs. One of them just kept asking questions and on the busride into town I got to tell her about why I was involved in church and what Jesus meant to me! It's just cool because you never know who you'll meet. God continues to take care of me as He always has - no surprises there.
A few days ago I went for my first hike - except it was all paved... bugger. It was the coast to coast walk in Auckland. It stretches from the harbor downtown, 16km to the other coast. It was great fun, and took us around six hours. We wound our way through parks, stopped to watch a bit of a cricket match, and marveled at some really big trees near One Tree Hill - which U2 sang a song about... Ok fine, I marveled at the big trees, but the mates I was with were surely starting to catch on :) They think I'm funny anyways because of my accent and how I say things, which is hilarious when we start joking about it.
The new news for today is this. For the last few days I've been looking for and praying about jobs. One of the greatest things about being here is the simplicity of it. All I brought was my hiking pack and a day pack - it all fits on my back. And I'm flexible enough that I can really do whatever I have to - whether that's jobs or moving or whatever. So over the last few days I've been in contact with an organization based on the South Island and found out yesterday that I have an interview with Franz Josef Glacier Guides. I'm REALLY pumped about it. And even if it doesn't work out it'll still be sweet to go down there and see how they do stuff. So you prayers would be appreciated on that. The interview is Nov. 6th and 7th. A day to see how I do on the ice and a day for a formal interview. I'll do some travelling between now and then, and see how it goes. It'd be a unique and fantastic experience I think though. It is a very remote location, which is fine, but I'm going to need fellowship somehow, so that's on my mind.
Thanks for caring enough to read all this, and for praying for me. God is so good. I wish you all the best. I'll try to post when I can. I'll try to get some pictures up when I have access. Trust Jesus.
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