Sunday we had SS and morning service in Rotorua, nice size choir, teen and children ministries. The Pipers had us for lunch and after a short time of talk Dan and Abby Fitch arrived to take us to Tauranga. Dan is an American, who used to work for Camp Chetek and he met New Zealander Abby when she came over to the states to counsel there one summer. Abby's maiden name is Brockholme. The Brockholmes have one boy and 3 girls who all go to the church in Tauraunga. Their youngest daughter attends the college in Canada Their son, Peter is married to a girl named Sarah she was due to have their baby this month. He is a professional motor crosser. The farm we went to the one day has a huge track on it where he practices, he goes around and gives lesson and demonstrations all over. He is also an avid hunter, him and his dad went on a trip while we were there and had to be flown in on a helicopter before there 3 more hour hike. The same farm is where Dan Fitch is a farm hand. Another of their daughters is Vicky who is married to Dan Frasier the pastor in Tauranga. They have 3 adorable kids the same age as ours.. I loved being in their home and with them. Their home is older and decorated all over with paintings that Vicky has done. I also loved how slow paced and caring they were. On Monday morning they have a family pancake (more like crepes though) time, every Monday and whoever can comes does so Dan's dad who was up from Canterbury (south island) stopped in as well as Sarah and Abby. Then another evening we had a dinner with the family up at the farm. Also several times while we were there any family member in the area during “tea time” would stop in. We spent Sunday evening in their church. Dan has only been the Pastor there about 3 years. Dan was saved as a teen and discipled in the church. So the Monday we had pancake breakfast Mr Fraser had to go down to the mountain town, about a half hour away in the afternoon, so he picked us up and dropped us off down there for 3 hours till Dan Fraser got off work and could pick us up. He works at a lumber mill half the week to help the church with his salary. We had a wonderful time down at this very beautiful spot. Stuck our toes in the pacific ocean, walked leisurely around the ocean over to the harbor and then down main street. This is the place many go for vacations (holiday) and I know why!! While there we found one of their “Christmas trees” with the pretty red flowers, also many hibiscus plants..everyones yard looks so nice and I think its because its a sub tropic area and everything just grows so well. Also saw many ships in the harbor, some modern long boats and want to be surfers, it was a trainer using about 2-3 foot waves to teach them. Tuesday we returned to the mountain with Dan and Abby, stopped first for Wendys then decided to walk around the mountain instead of up it. It was a really nice long and beautiful trail. One spot we slipped down to the rocks by the ocean and found a few small starfish and crabs, I was hoping to find a Paua shell, did find some pretty other ones I brought back with me. After that time we went to the farm Dan is a farm hand on, it is a huge farm but he said it was small in comparison to most. It is normal for an owner to hire many hands and not really do much of anything for himself. This farm has the motor cross track I mentioned before, Kiwi fruit grove, cows, a few horses and pigs, lots of sheep (and an interesting sheering barn), as well as they do some lumbering. I went out and walked around for almost an hour by myself and only covered one field. This was the evening the other family members came over to have dinner with us. We had deer and potatoes, Mrs Brockholme made us a Pavlova – the yummy meringue dessert, I also tried the NZ drink L&P there. I learned a new song while we were there “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me soO, BIBLE, BIBLE, BIBLE, for the Bible tells me so” (sung to the tune of Bingo). Vicky home schools her kids and uses the ACE program. Dan took us to Hamilton on Wednesday, we stopped by his sister Charlotte's house on the way there. Also on our way we saw where the Monganui river used to flow and now after a volcano erupted and changed its path, its new flow route.
Arrived in Hamilton in the afternoon, before Jono made it back from his hunting trip with the Pipers. They ended up getting 3 goats. Jono Millar is a kiwi who married a McLain daughter – Christi, they have 2 kids, and a new puppy named Titus. When missionaries had to return to America they asked them to become the pastor. He also was saved as a teen and discipled by missionaries (McLains, Pipers, and Montgomeries) within the church. . His family lives in the area but remain unsaved. We had Wednesday night service in a church members house. It was a good time of singing and prayer and Mike was able to give the message. This church is interestingly enough made up of mostly immigrants (Africans and Asians). One of the Asian families were returning to the Philippines so as there custom is they brought food for everyone else to say goodbye. They made apple turnovers and bought pizza. We walked to a park one day and saw a kindergarten class there. The government pays for you to have so many hours of that each week. They had a neat slide made of two parallel bars with nothing between. We also saw a hot air balloon while we were there. We heard later the day after we left their was a hot hair balloon festival there. So while we were in Hamilton I tried a white pumpkin, they also have green pumpkins but no orange, and they taste more like sweet potatoes, I also tried some parsnip. Christi took me shopping with her at a small mall to look around. One of the teen girls came over to the house to clean so she could earn money toward camp. This week (April 13-17) is teen camp. All four churches we visited plus many others send their kids to this camp in the south part of the North Island. We also played cranium WOW, Mike and I lost to Jono and Christy but it still was lots of fun. The WOW edition has one thing were you have to move your team mates arm like a puppet to guess what you are making them do. We weren't in Hamilton a really long time Friday morning the McLains arrived to pick us up and take us on to Aukland. I will have to tell you about that next!
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