TEA 05/09 - Four Seasons in One Week!

Whew! It has been quite the week! The TEAm started off by tramping up to Powell Hut near the top of Mt. Holdsworth - let me tell you - an 800 meter all uphill climb will make for an adventurous day! All of us eventually made it to the top and were greeted by a very full hut! There were at least 15 school girls, their leaders and a few other random travellers. It ended up that there were exactly the right number of mattresses for us all! That night while our group was singing, the school girls suddenly burst into a very loud song and (naturally) overpowered our tiny group. There was a short, awkward moment until we realized that they were actually singing along with us! Hearing the girls sing "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" with all their hearts (and lungs) really touched us all.

All of us had the chance to share our testimony with everyone else. Some of us were even lucky enough to have strangers in the room... : ) At the end of our smelly, four day tramp, Emily told us that she was leaving the TEAm. This made us all very sad, but we understand now that it was the best decision for her to make at this time in her life. Now, we have a different TEAm! This will take some getting used to, but we are still very excited to see where God takes us!

Another adventure of the week was riding the ferry from the North Island down to the South Island! This was especially fun for the motion sickness prone TEAm members ; )

The first full day on the South Island we had the chance to go see some of God's creation at it's best! After crossing the river 22 times, we arrived at Sawcut Gorge! (See below) Fantastic is only one word to describe it! It was a relaxing but adventurous day as we enjoyed both the Artist's masterpieces and each other.

Prayer requests this week: that we would continue to really invest in people and work up the courage to be bold and ask them deep questions. Also, that all of us would intentionally seek for new things to learn each day, instead of going through the motions of familiarity. And please pray for continued TEAm building as we are now a different group and have new things to learn! Pray that we would really understand what it means to consider others during this time. Thank you all for loving and supporting us! : )