Life As It Comes 

New Zealand Mission Trip11 Comments

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It all started with a rap from Casey and Tracy (actually, we heard the rap in Auckland, but we were meant to hear it before leaving Austin):

If the above doesn’t work, click here.

Now, that you’re in the spirit of things:

Background:

As I wrote about previously, the trip was arranged through the McAllister family who are full-time missionaries associated with the Southern Cross Project. 120,000+ Chinese tourists come through New Zealand every year, and the goal of our trip was to provide Bibles and other resources to these tourists as free gifts. The Bibles we distributed were in Simplified or Traditional Chinese.

Arrival & Orientation:

We traveled from Austin, through Los Angeles and Fiji, to land in Auckland. The flights were uneventful and everything went smoothly. This is a picture of most of the guys (minus yours truly) napping in the Nadi airport in Fiji. It was kinda cool to be able to see what we’d be getting ourselves into for our little two-day break on the way back. Dave and Brian especially, I think, didn’t get much rest on the plane, so I’m sure this was a much-needed nap for them. From Nadi, it’s a beautiful and short (3 hours) to Auckland. The view is stunning of the islands and the open ocean.

We arrived in Auckland and sped through customs so much so that we were much earlier than Mark and Helen were expecting us to be. Soon enough, they arrived and we packed all of our things into the church van as well as the family van, and we were off through the streets of Auckland. Left-hand driving was fun for all of us to watch, and we got a taste for the ins and outs of intersections as Helen told those of us in the church van things about Auckland, about the family, and about the things we observed. Once through downtown and off the freeway, most of the intersections were roundabouts and no longer had stop-lights (or even stop-signs). We made it to the McAllisters to be greeted by several large Norfolk Island Pines and an afternoon/evening to relax at the beach. The kids were home from school by the time we headed out, so they got to go with us while Helen stayed behind and outdid herself in the kitchen (which she continued to do all week). After dinner, it was off to the other host family homes for the guys. The girls stayed with the McAllisters all week. The guys were hosted by the associate and head pastors of IBC as well as the nice Chinese couple with whom Johnny and I stayed. They used to run a Bed & Breakfast out of their home, so they were no strangers to warm hospitality and taking care of us - more on them later. The next day, we all gathered together for some orientation from Mark and then afternoon of prayer-walking through Howick. Howick is one of the “suburbs” of Auckland. I’ve included a map below:

That evening, before dinner, we went out for our first distribution at a local restaurant. Mark had gone in advance to ask the restaurant owner about distributing to his customers, but he had been against it, so we positioned ourselves politely across the parking lot from his storefront. Three of us guys went first, and the restaurant owner shouted to any tourists, discouraging them from taking a Bible. We regrouped, prayed, and the girls took a stab at it. They were able to hand out a few Bibles and packets, so that was somewhat encouraging after a discouraging start.

Restaurant Distributions:

The next couple days were spent doing restaurant distributions. The first day we went to the downtown restaurant, we were met by the huge obstacle of building construction/repairs. Not only was it going to be difficult for us to distribute at the restaurant, but it was going to be difficult for any tourists to get to it themselves. In the picture you can see the restaurant doors under the overhang on the left. The tour buses typically park up the street (past the cones) and up around the corner. Fortunately, Mark devised a plan to tell the restaurant owner (who was more friendly to us distributing as long as we didn’t leave rubbish - discarded materials - in her restaurant) that he’d be happy to meet the buses and to lead them around the construction and down to the restaurant. This seemed to go over well, and demonstrated our hopes and prayers that the restaurant would be blessed by us being there rather than harmed as the other restaurant owner feared. Brian and I stayed to distribute first while the others ate, but we were all soon together - prayer-walking around the block, distributing, etc. It was cool to see how God provided bus after bus in spite of the construction. Throughout the trip, we had a lot of success distributing here, and the construction cleared up after a few days. We also got a change to give an English Bible out to Alf the construction worker. It was awesome to have him be interested in what we were doing and to stick up for us in the craziness that the construction caused those first few days. Below are some more photos at the lunchtime restaurant.

As for the evening restaurant (the more hostile one), we went back a couple more times throughout the week, and the theme verse we used was Matthew 10:16.

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Fortunately, the buses started parking long-ways in front of the restaurant, so we were able to send a few folks with backpacks full of Bibles to stand on the other side of the buses so as to not detract from the restaurant and to hand out Bibles as the patrons were leaving. Most of the time, the view of the sidewalk from the restaurant was completely blocked. We were not trying to be disrespectful to the restaurant owner; we were only trying to ensure that the tourists were allowed to choose for themselves whether or not to accept the Bibles rather than to have him naysaying what we were doing. This picture is from our last distribution at this restaurant, and it shows, from my vantage point, what a distribution there looked like. If you look closely (or view the larger size), you can see some of our crew standing/sitting with their backpacks, ready to distribute. God proved faithful here, in spite of opposition, and we were able to hand out to a few groups. There was a third location, newer for the McAllisters, that we distributed at with much success as well.

Attraction Distributions:

On a few days, we went to various tourist attractions to distribute. Two were in Auckland - Mount Eden and Mount Savage - and one was the city of Rotorua. Below is a map with Mount Eden marked as “A” and Mount Savage Marked as “B”:

Here are some pictures from Mount Eden - those pink sacks have information from us, and you can see the Bibles easily:


We distributed a few Bibles in Rotorua as well, but a good portion of the time there was relaxing and/or site-seeing. Here are a few of my favorites from Rotorua:

On the way out of town, we spotted a couple buses of tourists and spun around to catch them. They were our first chance all day, and it was as we were leaving. God even delivered a few who needed Bibles to us before we could leave to head back to Auckland! Very cool. All in all, we distributed over 360 Bibles. The statistic we heard before we left said each one would be shared with around ten people on average, so that’s 3,600 lives impacted!

IBC:

While we were there, we got to meet and interact with a lot of the folks at International Baptist Church of Auckland. It was truly a blessing to be able to worship with them on another part of the globe. I also got to share a few humble thoughts, based on what I’m learning in Perspectives, with the congregation on Sunday morning as well as joining the others in sharing a song. Tracy and Casey got to share their rap with the junior high/high school group (”college” in NZ, “university” is what we call college/university), and Lissie and I got to challenge the group about local missions as well. Being a part of the body of Christ in a church in another country is an amazing experience. I’ve been fortunate enough to do so in Mexico City, Fes, and now Auckland, and each time has been rich and powerful.

The McAllisters:

The McAllisters were an amazing host family for us. We got to see them in action in many facets of life. Mark is super-dad. I don’t know how he can balance seminary, missions, coaching t-ball, and being a parent all at once, but he does it filled with energy and passion. Helen is amazing, warm, and kind. She kept the house running smoothly, kept us all fed, and complemented Mark well. It’s truly inspiring what this couple did in leaving stable jobs and life in the USA to obey God’s call in New Zealand to reach the Chinese. May He bless them richly!

Faith, their eldest, is already an amazing young woman of God. It will be so exciting to see who she grows to become. Her passion for distributing kept all of us going, and her child-like faith was inspiring to us all. Luke kept us busy and kept us laughing. He’s going to grow into a strong man of God as well. Here is a video of him doing the haka for me:

Luke doing the Haka from Kevin Driver on Vimeo.

Mike, Landy, and Mason:

Last, but certainly not least, are Mike, Landy, and Mason. They hosted Johnny and I, made us a special Chinese barbecue dinner, showed us all around the peninsula, and generally showed us the hospitality of Christ while we were in town. If you’re ever looking for a wonderful family to stay with while visiting Auckland, look up Auckland Home Stay. Best wishes to Mason at University, and thank you all very much!


Fiji:

On the way back, we stopped in Fiji for two days to unwind, recap the trip, and thank God for what He had done. The worship time we had that Sunday morning on the dock was unforgettable. Be sure to check out Nina’s and my pictures (the rest require an account on snapfish).