Another action packed fin de semana en Nueva Zelandia

We have just had a most excellent weekend up in Auckland (2 & 1/2 hours drive away from Tauranga) and have come back feeling very satisfied with ourselves. As a side note - for people that don't even have a car we sure have clocked up some kilometers over the last few weekends.
Mark had the talk in the spanish group and I think he impressed a few people with his delivery which was nice.

A snippet from Marks talk

We also went with the group yesterday on spanish witnessing. It is an interesting how they do that up there. Of course the whole city is their territory and they are very organized. Someone goes through the telephone book and finds names that could be spanish then the information is transferred to a "map" with as many as possible in the same area. They then approach the householder and ask if there are spanish speaking people living there. A lot of them turn out to be from the Philippines but they do find one or two latinos which is cause for great celebration. I was priviledged to speak and place mags with a young girl from Argentina and Mark and Aaron also had an excellent talk with a man (they even got invited inside). We just loved it!

Amanda came with us and was able to catch up with her Chinese friend (Cherie is a special pioneer here in the chinese congo). We all met up after witnessing a went for YUM CHA! Now an interesting thing - I managed to avoid eating chicken feet in Ecuador for 2 whole years but had to do it here in NZ!

Cherie said I would never be accepted by the chinese congo if I didn't eat one so I put on my big girl pants an went for it. One bite though and I went back to being a wimp. They are just so awful! It's the texture that I just couldn't get past, oh and the fact that those three toes have been scratching round in the dirt!
Maria, although she looks like she is into it - couldn't do the deed either - so I don't feel so bad!

Amanda shows why she is well in with her chinese friends

We also had a lovely evening last night with our friends (and their other friends) Martin and Louise. They are going to Bolivia next month to live. They have been planning this for quite awhile and left Bethel a couple of years ago to get their plans underway. They will be greatly missed by the spanish group - having been there just about from the start.

Louise and I with the gorgeous little Columbian girls who now live in Hamilton

We had a lovely catch up with Jay and Sheryl (sorry I don't have their photo) who served in Ecuador at the same time as us and are also hankering to get back.That place sure gets into your blood there's no denying - it will be a great reunion for us at the English Convention in Guayaquil that's for sure.