"Others" Focused & Milford Sound

Hello Everyone,

This past week the focus for the TEAm has been on "serving others" and looking for ways to bless people around us instead of always focusing on ourselves and what we want/need. We all have opportunities every day to serve others, even in secret! This exercise helps us look outside of "us" and bless someone else.

In our travels this past week we left Queenstown, drove to Te Anau for a night, and then headed on to Milford Sound.

Tuesday dawned bright, cold and sunny and we explored Milford Sound by boat. We praised our Lord for the beauty of His creation as we marveled at cascading waterfalls, mountains that fell straight down into the sea, seals on rocks, and a beautiful blue sky above.

A curious Kea near Milford Sound

We also took several day walks on our journey to Milford, taking the time to hike up to Key Summit one fine afternoon.

Exploring Key Summit

On our way back to Queenstown, we stopped to appreciate the scenery and the TEAm mastered a "rock balancing challenge" for this photo.

Once back at Lakeland Park in Queenstown, we spent the afternoon doing a service project and chopped and stacked some trees that had been cut down earlier that day. It was great fun and a joy to help Lindsey & Marian out in such a practical way. Marian made a delicious pavlova topped with cream and fruit - an ending to a perfect day.

The week has been full of "secret serving" and it has been fun to see what creative ways everyone has thought of to serve each other. We have also focused on seeing the bigger picture that life is not all about meeting our own needs and desires, but following Christ's example of being a servant and putting others first. In addition to this, we've been talking about 'why' we do what we do, not just what we do. When we serve, is it to bring attention to us, or to meet a need in Christ's Name? A good thing to evaluate ourselves on often.

The TEAm is now on a tramp at Mt. Somers, so watch for updates in the next week or so!

Please pray for physical strength for the TEAm to complete all hikes, for good weather as they are out in the backcountry, and for opportunities to meet new friends and share God's love with them.

Until next time...