Arriving and Settling In

I arrived safely in Auckland yesterday (Wed., Feb. 1st) morning! When I looked out the plane window and saw the Sky Tower and the rest of the Auckland skyline, my eyes filled with tears. After this long journey, God got me here!!! All my luggage arrived as well, and my journey went flawlessly smoothly! Thank you all so much for the prayers. 

Three kiwi church leaders and one American missionary were at the airport to greet me yesterday, and I have been surrounded and supported since then as I work my way through jet lag.  I had been traveling for over thirty hours and literally skipped over January 31st thanks to the International Date Line.  Also, I left an Indiana winter and entered the middle of a New Zealand summer!  My body is a little confused, but I'm feeling much better than yesterday.  Yesterday was busy--I arrived in Auckland at 9:50 in the morning.  One of my "best mates," Jo, and my flatmate, Jes, and I spent most of the day together.  I got a mobile phone, exchanged the currency I brought with me, and bought some essentials.  I LOVE our house--it's such an amazing blessing from God!  I also visited the National Resource Center where I will do my office work each week. Yesterday evening, we had "tea" (dinner) with some other kiwi members of the churches here and then headed out to youth group at Papakura!  It was so good to be back at Papakura and even reconnect with two of the youth I met when I was here in 2009.  I had a blast, watching/learning rugby touch, playing ping pong and dodgeball, and just interacting with the students.  Also, some of the students shared testimonies from their experience at Ignite camp this summer.  After youth group, I did a little unpacking and then crashed while attempting to journal about my day.  When I looked at the journal entry this morning, it was nonsensical.  :)

Today, Peter (a Kiwi church leader) and Jes went with me to set up a NZ bank account.  Also, Jes and I went shopping again for some more things we needed for the house and groceries.  This evening, Steph, another American missionary, is joining us for dinner.  Tomorrow I hope to actually get unpacked and settled into the house.  This weekend I will be attending a couple of our local churches and getting to know people better since it is a holiday weekend (everyone is off on Monday).  Then on Tuesday, I will have my first official meeting with some national church leaders and start getting into the swing of normal ministry life.

I will try to post some pictures soon (once I can take some)!