New Zealand Family DTS Update, Weeks 1 - 5

Wow, time is really flying by, we are already in our fifth week of school here in New Zealand! I just realized when talking with someone from home that while we've been posting pics and short status updates on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/LefeverFamilyMissionsAdventures), our last blog post was from our layover in San Francisco, so here's a long overdue update on our family as well as a summary of what we've been learning and doing each week so far. I've also included a brief glimpse into what we've got coming up in the next few weeks as well as some prayer requests at end.

Family Update
Our days are pretty well packed from morning to evening between getting the family ready for the day, school and base activities and homework, but we are all having a great time. Amy and I are getting a lot out of the school topics, the speakers are amazing and we are learning a lot from community life as well. It's been particularly relieving to see how the girls are settling in, each of them have bonded with several other kids and are spending a lot of time playing outside when they are not in home school and creche (nursery for Mala). There is definitely something special about living and working in a community of people that are all moving towards the same purpose!  It's the tail end of winter here, so it's been raining quite a bit, here's a pic of Mala in her rain gear, complete with "gum boots".

Week One Summary
This week the school started off with each of the students sharing a 10-minute summary of their "life story". Amy and I missed the first day of sharing due to our delay in San Francisco, but got to hear a few on the second and third days shared our own as well. It is amazing that although we come from very different locations and circumstances, there is a common theme behind each family's purpose for being here and significant examples of "divine intervention" in many of our journeys to New Zealand. We also spent time the first week getting acclimated to our accommodations and our schedule for each day including work duties around the base. We don't have a personal vehicle, so a highlight was the weekly van run to Matamata where we able to stock up on some necessary supplies (fresh roasted coffee beans and more importantly, gluten-free food for Mala).

Week Two Summary
The topic for Week Two was "Biblical Worldview" which an overview of world history and world religions. John Rush was our speaker, he is currently a professor in Lithuania, but was born in the US, did work with YWAM Mercy Ship Ministries in the South Pacific and is the author of "The Man with the Bird on His Head", an amazing story about how he became intertwined in the conversion of group of cargo cult peoples in Vanuatu by unwittingly fulfilling their tribal prophecy!  The teaching was great, it is very interesting to see how various cultures and historical events worked together to create the perfect circumstances for Jesus' arrival and how they continue to work together in preparation for his return!  Having settled in the prior week, this week we were able to start to get to know the other families and start to make some personal connections. This week I started getting involved with the girls home schooling, so that's been fun and challenging as well.

Week Three Summary

Jerry Brownell was our speaker in week three, he is an American but has lived in Singapore for the last 20 years with his wife Virla and he directs the "School of Biblical Studies" on the YWAM base in Singapore. The topic for this week was "Studying the Bible" and we received a crash course in how to use the "inductive method" of studying the bible, using the book of Philippians as an example. I think we'd have needed a lot more time to really pick up the skills, but we picked up some good tools and learned a lot about how the structure of the texts and context of the author and times can shed new light and life on the word! Even better was seeing Jerry and his wife in motion - they are an amazing couple, full of grace and so loving in the way they serve. It was encouraging hearing their stories of living and serving as a family in missions. Another highlight of this week was that we were able to borrow a van for a Sunday afternoon drive as a family. We got to see some beautiful countryside, including the Waikere Falls, which are only 10 minutes down the road. We also made a stop to McDonalds, which I think the girls enjoined even more than the sights!

Week Four Summary
The topic for week four was "Intimacy with God" and our speaker was Josh Cole, a leader in the House of Prayer in Tauranga, New Zealand. Josh is very passionate and uses hands on application to drive learning in the classroom vs. extended lectures, so this week was stretching, but very fulfilling. We learned some good techniques for meditating on the word and also the importance of prayer in the life of the believer. We also had some great ministry times with class involvement in hearing, giving and receiving words. Another highlight of this week was our drive to Tauranga, which is the 7th largest city in NZ. It was a very scenic drive (although Amy spent most of it white knuckled as the roads wee very curvy and I'm not used to driving on the left just yet) and it was nice to be in an urban setting right on the ocean. We arrived after most things in town had closed, so I think we'll be making a trip back here as there are lots of interesting shops and we'd like to visit the House of Prayer.

Week Five Summary
The topic for week five was "The Father Heart of God" and our speaker was Frank Naea, a key leader and prior YWAM president. Frank is a huge man (half Somoan/half Kiwi) with a tremendous sense of humor who carries a significant word on understanding God as our Father and his heart towards his creation. Our class time this week was anything but typical, just to give an example, we spent some time learning the "Haka" ritual the All Blacks use before every rugby match (to see it in action, click the video link below) and had some fun as a class practicing it together! The dance and words look and sound menacing, but there is actually a very rich history behind its creation and the meaning of the words had an interesting application to what we were learning. We spent most of our time on base this week, but have our weekly trip to town on Friday are planning to take a field trip with some other families to visit a local dairy farm on Saturday.

A Peek into the Future
We have 7 more weeks here in New Zealand before we take off for outreach. We'll be covering a new topic each week, including Evangelism and Family in Missions. We'll also be picking our outreach destination and working within our various teams to prepare for our work there. We've been given three potential destinations to select from - North China, Australia and Vanuatu. A team will go to each location and partner with an existing YWAM team in that country to help them with various areas of service.  We'll be there for 8 weeks and then return home to PA in mid-December!

Prayer Requests

• Continued Wellbeing - We had some health issues going on with the girls in the first few weeks, many of the other families and staff members have had some issues as well. As of right now, everyone is doing pretty well, please pray that this continues!
• Outreach Location - We have a few more weeks to make a firm decision on where we will spend our outreach. We are in the process of learning more about each location, they all sound interesting and we are leaning towards one particular place but are still praying about where might be the best fit.
• Future Plans - There are many reasons behind our adventure, but a key one is that we are looking to get a fresh and godly perspective on life and from that foundation, begin the next chapter of our life together as a family. Our desire is to find a way to live in which we can devote our lives to serving God with joy as a family vs. being stressed out to the max while chasing the elusive (and deceptive) American dream. 

While Stranded in San Francisco...

If you read our last post, you know that we've been granted an unexpected mini-vacation in San Francisco, CA due to missing our flight to NZ on Thursday night.  The next available flight wasn't until Sunday, so we decided to make the best of things and get some rest and spend some time together seeing the sights.  Here are some pics and a short description of some of the things we did...

San Francisco Transportation - We got an all day pass for the subway, bus, cable car and trolley systems... not the easiest with 6 and a stroller, but made got us around and made for some first time experiences!

Westview Mall - After getting in the city, we needed some snacks to re-energize.  Amazing food court, went back later for dinner too!  I even found a cafe that serves the treasured fresh ground, pour over coffee and had a taste!

Ghiradelli Square - I'll give you one guess on who's idea it was that we go here...Ok, all of us wanted to go there, but Amy made sure there was no chance of an unfavorable vote :0)

Lombard Street  - We took a walk down San Francisco's "Crookedest Street", Amy wanted me to go back with the rental car on Sunday, but I refused...ended up driving down something almost as curvy and more precarious, see note on Muir Woods Park.

Haight-Ashbury Street - I know, those days are gone, but it was fun to see what's left and there are some pretty cool shops down there.  Found another pour over coffee shop, this one even better, oh, and we found gourmet chocolate there for the girls too!

 

Golden Gate Bridge - Took the traffic filled drive up 101 North to drive across the infamous bridge on our way to Muir Woods.  The fog was settling in right over the bridge, made for some cool photo ops.

 

Muir Woods Park - Ok, no one warned me that we had to risk driving off the side of the road with hair pin curves and no hand rails, but it was well worth the risk as the sights were amazing!

 

San Francisco Airport - Ok, not the sight everyone typically puts on their list, but we spent as much time, if not more, in this location during our 2.5 day stint in the city, so it's worth mentioning.  Found lots of great food and shops and some very helpful people too!

The Adventure Begins...

Well, our adventure has officially begun! Preparing for this point has taken a lot more than we imagined, but we made it with lots of help from friends and family and are presently in flight on route to New Zealand. Traveling by plane is a new experience for most of the family and so far it's going well, even for Mala. Lots of Z Bars and Yo Gabba-Gabba helped to keep her content until now and just moments ago she dropped off to sleep.

We left our house yesterday around noon after some hectic last minute packing and re-packing to meet our 50 lb bag weight requirements. It's amazing how hard it can be to choose between those last few items... after a 2.5 hr drive we made it to the airport in plenty of time, only to get delayed for 2+ hrs. We made it to San Francisco, but too late to catch our connection. The next flight isnt for two days, so we are getting a surprise mini-trip to SanFrancisco! We have a 12 hr flight to New Zealand that leaves Sunday night, we land at 5:40am NZ time and from there we take the final 3 hr leg by bus to our home for the next 12 weeks in Matamata.

Our next post will likely be from NZ after we've had a few days to acclimate and get details on what we will be doing, in the mean time, here are some areas we'd love your prayer support in:

Adjusting: Between the new location, time zone change and lifestyle change, we've got a lot of adjustments to make! We don't want to lose any time jumping into our training so we're hopingto be quick learners.

Outreach Location: As I said in a prior post, we will be determining our outreach location in the coming weeks. There will be several options, and we certainly have some thoughts on what we do (and dont) want to do, but our hearts desire is go wherever we can be a blessing to others.

Longer Term Plans: A big reason we are going on this adventure is to take some time as a family to figure out what we will be doing moving forward. We've certainly learned a lot in the last 15 years as a family, but are anticipating some new direction, just not quite sure what yet! We know we want to get more involved in working together as a family and helping others along the way.

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Transitions

We have less than one month until we leave for New Zealand. We are all getting very excited, this will be our first international adventure as a family!

Our family has been focused on transitions - I (Carl) have been transitioning work responsibilities (last day is Friday!), Amy has been turning over her women's ministry responsibilities and the girls finished dance classes for the year (pic to right is from the year end recital) and are wrapping up homeschool for the year. Now we turn our attention to preparing for our adventure...



We are so thankful for those that are praying for us, here are some things you can stand with us on:

•  Preparations - As you can imagine, we have many things to prepare and every day we find more! We have our list and are working at staying at peace as we work to accomplish all that is needed.
• Health - In the busyness of life, we've not been as disciplined as we should and as such have a little bit of physical tidying up to do. We are just wrapping up a 21-day "purification cleanse", are generally feel much better and are praying that we can continue on in our new found disciplines so that are bodies are more prepared for the challenges of international travel.
• Family - Besides re-locating our family, another big change for us is that we will be together 24/7 for the next 6 months. We are super excited, as this something we've been dreaming of, but it's a little scary too! We've already been hanging out and doing things together more and are trusting that we'll continue to grow in love!

Prelude

We are the Lefever family (from left, Amy, Ascher, Mala, Bente, Carl & Soren) - pretty much a standard American family, living life and growing as a family, and as you can see from our picture, trying to have fun together along the way. We recently made a decision as a family to do something a little different from the norm…in July we are departing on a five month journey in volunteer missions that starts in New Zealand and ends up somewhere else in the world - we don't exactly where yet!

 

I know…pretty exciting and scary all at the same time, but we really feel like this is significant and are expecting this to be a milestone event for our family! We will be leaving the US on July 19 and then spending the next 12 weeks on a missions base a town called Matamata, which is on the northern island of New Zealand (if you've watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this is the town where the Shire was filmed). The base is run by an organization called YWAM (Youth with a Mission), which is a large missions organization that runs over 1,000 bases across the globe. While in Matamata, we will be going thru training with 11 other families like ours for about three months and then afterwards, participating in volunteer missions work somewhere else in the world, potentially in New Zealand or another part of the South Pacific or Asia regions, for at least another two months. As of right now, we are planning to return home in December, but are open to potentially spending more time doing similar work depending on how this adventure goes…

 

We'll be posting updates on our journey along the way, we hope you enjoy following us on our adventure!