Traveling Tales

After saying  goodbye to my friends at the base - some of whom I've grown very close to over the course of my DTS - and my beloved fiancé, it was finally time to begin our journey to the south island. My thoughts were filled with excitement, anxiousness, anticipation, and nervousness. It was pretty bittersweet for me because I was sad to say bye to my loved ones, excited for our journey, yet nervous about not knowing what to expect. In that moment of saying goodbye I was leaving behind my comforts and conveniences—replacing them with unknown expectancies. All the while there was a still, small voice echoing in my heart saying, "Peace I leave with you- not as the world gives, rather my heavenly peace which surpasses all understanding." I treasured this deep in my heart as we departed on what would be one of the longest road trips I've taken in my life. Sure, I've been on some road trips before- however, never have I been on one where I was packed like a sardine (which is inevitable when you're in a van of 7 people and tons of equipment). So far I've experienced nausea , breathtaking views of mountains, exhaustion, and adorable baby seals! As we are now on our second day of driving, I sit here in the van filled with joy, feeling incredibly blessed. I'm blessed to be on this journey with my team, blessed that we're listening to some good tunes, and that when I look outside my window, I'm surrounded by God's wondrous creation. May we never lose our wonder and amazement at who You are and all the good works you do, Lord. :)

          -Beth

Our team left base at around 2pm and after  a long drive we finally arrived at our ferry (a boat that's taking us to south island) at midnight. We arrived early so we walked around town for 2 hours and napped until it was time to get on. About an hour later we were signaled to drive onto the ferry, this was our last bit of traveling to reach south island so we were all excited but too tired to show it. We got onto the ferry and plopped ourselves and our stuff on the ground after about an hour of sleep i woke up around 4am to 4 Samoan children jumping up and down on a racing arcade game that was on the ship screaming and making a lot of noise, It's funny how I always end up I these situations after asking God to work on my patience with me lol... So I put my headphones in and went back to sleep.  We arrived in south island at 6 ate breakfast at 7  then started traveling to our campsite which was 5 hours away. We finally arrived at our campsite after almost 24 hours of traveling we slept pretty much all day and ended the day with a trip to the beach. We are now driving to Queenstown which is another 7 hours away. I'm so excited to see what God has planned here for us.

          -Connor