Just to let you know... I'm moving back to the nice house this weekend. Whoo-hoo!

Also, got a connection to a woodworking shop on Tuesday. Going to go build a longboard deck, I brought my trucks and wheels with me. Maybe will start a NZ asphalt downhill club.

Might have a lead on another job... ropes course!! We'll see if it goes anywhere. Also there's a rock climbing gym here. And myriads of outdoor activities... I would love to get a job doing something like that. Driving a boat for divers maybe. Who knows. That would be sweet. Maybe I can be a tour guide, I discovered recently I've got the skillz. You'll see them sometime.

Hey! Just a quick update.

The weather has been back and forth like crazy between sunshine and pouring rain. Guess this is what it's like to live on the coast of a big island.

I moved a little farther from the church on monday. This place is free, housesitting for a lady in the church who has to go be with her sick mum in Christchurch. It will be for an undefined period of time. I have to take care of the German shepherd, but that's no big deal. But, I am a bit gutted to give up the bayside view.

I led worship here on Sunday. It went well, at least that's what they told me. If I'm not mistaken words like "brilliant" and "magnificent" were used. Of course, the week before I was here they didn't have anyone at all to do it, so the contrast set me up for success.

Starting to get more of a read on what youth group shtuff will be like. I was a little vague on exactly what my role with them was to be.. I thought it would be leading the senior high group but with some other people who were already helping with it. Nope. Just me. Solo. At least for now. I'll be working hard to get other people to help. There should be at least one female leader. I'm really liking my schedule right now... I kind of do whatever I want whenever I want. They haven't asked me to keep office hours or anything. Not like I have an office anyway... But the flexibility is cool.

Tried to go to a sunday night service at another church. Couldn't find it. I printed a map of it but left it at home. I want to find a loud worship service on sunday nights to go to. I really like this church, the commitment to people here is great, but I feel like I could use a place to just cut loose a little bit. Maybe that will just come with a little time here. There's one other guitar player on the worship team roster for the first service.... and... no other instrumentalists, and a whole handful of singers. Got one or two other instrument types in my crosshairs.

I'll try to get some photographic images of some of the people I'm hanging around these days so I can introduce them to you.

So I brought my bass with me because I figured bass players are always in short supply and I could probably pick up some gigs and maybe make a little cash. I looked at the bulletin board in the music store today.... chock full of "bass player looking for..." type ads. Apparently we're not in such short supply over here. So now I'm thinking "frick I packed that thing all the way over here for no reason..." Whatever. Maybe it wasn't for no reason.

I was thinking earlier today about something really profound that I thought I should write about. I forgot what it was.

So I made it.

I've been staying in the sweetest house ever for the last few days. It's right on the bay... there's a little boat ramp in the back yard and a canoe... a couple of the guys here and I took the canoe out the other day and it was freaking fun. Except when it almost flipped over. No big deal, it was just kind of cold and windy and I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.

The people here are so nice. Last night Koro & Kate, a couple who help with worship, invited me over after practice to eat. I thought it was to join them for dinner. Nope... they'd eaten already... so Kate made a full meal for me. Just like that. It felt a little awkward, sitting and eating their food while they didn't eat... but it was super nice of them.

Last night was our first practice. It was a little stressful. I suppose that's to be expected though. These things take a little time.

Haven't jumped into youth group stuff yet, we'll get that figured out next week.

Explored Tauranga a bit today. Downtown is pretty rad. If it's nice tomorrow I'm going to go to the beach. Driving on the left side of the road is SO weird. It's also weird how polite kiwis are in person and then how big of jerks they are when driving.

Isn't it weird how the word weird breaks the i before e rule? Weird. Now the word weird sounds really weird to me because of how many times I've typed the word weird.

Haven't looked into another job yet, waiting until I get a little more settled in to the church thing. They've asked this guy Mike to be responsible for me in terms of places to stay and whatnot, he's a YWAMer, spent 3 years in Thailand. I like him. We're gonna go hunting soon. Anyways, his brother is a cabinetmaker, so there might be an option there.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=589982541&ref=name#/album.php?aid=109569&id=589982541

I found Starbucks. I'm not exactly a proponent of Starbucks but it's familiar. Not much else is, so that's a good thing.

I'm totally going to pick up an accent. I've already picked up on a bunch of expressions/words. I'm not trying to pick up the accent, but I will...

So. There's that..... there's that. It's time to pay the piper.