Bridget's MAF Journey: Home assignment

North Island road trip

Thursday was the beginning of my North Island road trip, together with my friend, supporter, hiking buddy - and on this occasion, driver - Raewyn. We kicked off by heading to the Manawatu to catch up with a mutual friend for lunch, and then I spoke at an open event hosted by Feilding Baptist. They optimistically put out 30 chairs, but then had to find more!

The following day I spoke at Cornerstone Christian School's assembly, and then we drove up to Hamilton. Saturday was an off day, so we planned to hike up Mt Pirongia. We made it as far as Ruapane trig, and decided not to go further as the track looked difficult and the weather looked like it was deteriorating.

On Sunday we managed to watch the first half of the Rugby World Cup quarter-final between the All Blacks and Ireland, then drove south, and I spoke at Te Awamutu Bible Chapel - 5 minutes in service as a 'taster' and then my longer presentation over a shared lunch. It was a great turnout, and I had lots of conversations with people afterwards.

From there we drove to Auckland. On Monday I popped in to see Mandy at the MAF office, and in the evening I spoke at another 'open event' hosted by St Chad's Huapai.

The next day, Tuesday, we drove to Tauranga and mentally prepared ourselves for a frenetic few days! That afternoon I spoke at a monthly missions group, and we settled into the MAF hangar apartment.

My first event on Wednesday was a presentation to the MAF Tauranga prayer group. I then had a few meetings with Mark Fox and other MAF staff in the afternoon before heading out to Greerton Bible Church in the evening, for another 'open event'. Phew!

On Thursday morning I was invited to the house of a local supporter who had arranged for a few friends to come around for morning tea and to hear my story. I think we were all encouraged!

I had originally planned to spend 5 whole days in Tauranga, but at the insistence of the MAF Hamilton prayer group organiser (who said that they wouldn't be able to have a meeting on the Saturday I was in Hamilton) we found ourselves driving back to Hamilton for one more night. I was coming down with a cold as well, so was not in a particularly good mood about all the extra travel. However the meeting on Thursday evening went pretty well, and our host had also arranged for me to fill the guest speaker slot at his retirement village the following day. He informed me that Sarah Ulmer had been the previous speaker, so I hope people weren't too disappointed with a no-name like me!

After the talk we drove back to Tauranga to catch up with some friends in the afternoon and at least make it half a day off!

Saturday morning dawned and we headed over to Mark's house for the rugby semi-finals (All Blacks vs Argentina). He'd invited some others over as well, which made for a great atmosphere. It was then that we found out we needed to vacate the apartment by lunchtime for an AirBnB guest coming in, so we packed and cleaned up and had a leisurely drive to our next destination in the Coromandel. We stopped in the Karangahake gorge to do some bush walking on the way.

On the Sunday I spoke at Te Puru church. Never heard of Te Puru? Neither had I! They had asked me to visit during my last home assignment, but I didn't have any free Sundays in that part of the country, so I made it a priority to visit this time. After church we drove to the Hawkes Bay, stopping for lunch in Matamata on the way.

Monday was Labour Day and the sun was out, so Raewyn and I took the opportunity - along with thousands of other people - to explore some of the walking tracks at Te Mata Peak.

On Tuesday we visited Hastings Christian School and I spoke to three different classes. That evening, Riverbend Bible Church hosted another 'open event'.

The following day, Wednesday, we drove back to Wellington - road trip complete!

Photos