Q&A: The First 5 Cards (anonymous, Jayme, Karen, Austin, and James)

While we were in the states over the holidays, we were able to share at our church (Renewal City Church in Longview, WA - we love it there!).  We set out 3x5 inch note cards and invited church members to write questions that they would like us to answer on the cards.  We decided we'd use this format to respond to the questions!

So, without further ado:

#1: How many times have you been to Mordor? - anonymous
We've driven past it several times, but so far we haven't stopped - do you blame us?! :)

In Lord of the Rings, the land of Mordor was filmed on the North Island of New Zealand at a place called Tongariro National Park.  It is in the middle of the North Island, it is a dry, rather barren area.  There isn't a lot of people in that part of New Zealand, so it was a terrific filming location for Mordor in the movies.  Mount Nauruhoe was the perfectly shaped volcanic cone that becomes Mount Doom in the movies.

Tongariro National Park is about a 4 or 5 hour drive from our home, I believe.  On our base's October DTS, the Pilgrimage Stream always do a hike in Tongariro National Park.

Source: https://www.visitruapehu.com/explore/tongariro-national-park/

#2: What is the worst or most dangerous bug/creepy crawly/animal you have to deal with on base or outreach? - Jayme R.
On base: the most dangerous thing in New Zealand is two types of spiders.  The White Tail spider is the spider we see frequently - apparently originally native to Australia.  This species of spiders likes to come in our dining room window and hang out.  They get to be about the size of a quarter in diameter (that is counting the legs), and they have a distinctive white pattern on their backs.    Rumor has it that their bites can cause cavernous, gross holes in your skin from the poison - but a quick search on google (which is, of course, super reliable ;)) indicates they aren't actually all that (if at all) poisonous to humans.  I still try to kill them and keep them away from my baby!

There is one venomous spider that is native to New Zealand I've never seen - it's called the katipo.  Only the female is poisonous.

On outreach, the worst creepy crawly we've had to deal with are centipedes - not your friendly, PNW 1-2 inch long centipedes, these are large, fast, aggressive red centipedes.  Commonly known as Vietnamese centipedes, I believe, they can live for up to 10 years, and we've seen them 6-10 inches long.  Waking up to having one crawl over you, or when they scuttle around in your shoe when you put your shoes on is not a pleasant experience.  And they are very hard to kill - we've found machetes seem to work best!

Source: http://animal-world.com/encyclo/reptiles/centipedes/VietnameseCentipede.php

#3: Do you have good personal friends there that you can meet with often to pray for you? Or do you feel it is one sided and feel alone? - Karen H.

Being a part of a YWAM community - at least here at Marine Reach - is kind of funny, because often you find yourself getting prayed for and praying for others BEFORE you actually build much of a friendship!  So my first thought in response to that question is, "We have more friends here who pray for us regularly than probably many of our fellow church members back in the states have!" Praying for each other is such an ingrained part of our culture that yes, I feel like I ALWAYS have people who will pray for me - if I ask, they will stop whatever they are doing, put their hands on me or their arms around me, and pray for me right on the spot for whatever my needs are.

So, yes to the prayer, and absolutely yes to having close friends here.  Being on a DTS staff team means that we are working shoulder to shoulder alongside one or two dozen people who all have a similar goal to what we have, are experiencing a similar life to what we're experiencing, and are in the same "faith boat" that we're in, too.  We still have to be intentional about building friendship, and there can develop a level of "comfortableness" that makes us feel like we know someone really well without actually taking time to get to know them (probably part of the spiritually intense day-to-day life), but we have been able to build friendships and some of the people we first met 2 1/2 years ago when we came as students are still living life with us every day - eating meals together, cleaning together, organizing together, worshipping alongside, praying with, and conversing with.  I think that our friendships and the very real element of community are two of our favorite parts of being in YWAM.

Our July 2018 DTS staff team. Source: Marine Reach Media Team

#4: Why did you not pass out pens and is it warm in New Zealand? - Austin P.
I don't know why we didn't pass out pens!  I'll see if we can do that next time - that would be far more useful than notecards!

And yes, right now it is delightfully warm.  Since the seasons are reversed, here in February we are experiencing the height of summer.  We have two plum trees in our backyard which are bursting with flavor! In the winter, it does get cold - usually not down all the way to freezing, but it will regularly be down to 10 degrees C (about 50 degrees F), and since New Zealand homes are not insulated that much, that is the temperature both inside and outside.  So it FEELS cold because you feel like you never warm up from about June through August - but then sometimes the sun breaks through and you find yourself sitting outside during lunch and you realize you are, momentarily, warm!

New Zealand lifestyle culture involves a lot more fluid movement between indoors and outdoors - so even in the dead of winter, unless it is down pouring rain, windows are left open, sliding doors are left open, people eat outside, etc.  We have a front porch area that is under cover, which is where we hang our laundry to dry (clothes dryers are rarely used here), and we spend a LOT of time out there, regardless of the outside temperature.

Our laundry drying in our outdoor space while Mara gets some sunshine!

#5: What does "Samara" mean? - James D.
It has three main meanings - all of them are related: "Protected by God," "Covered by God" and "Guardian." We loved the idea of instilling in her identity that God is with her and watching over her - but also giving her a name that speaks to empowering her to guard and protect others.

At the end of our pregnancy with her, there was some concern that she hadn't developed as she needed to and that her health could be compromised.  Just before finding out about that, we had finally decided that if we had a girl, her name would be Samara. Over those several weeks when we were waiting for pregnancy to end, hoping our baby would be OK, I just felt more and more confident that our baby was a girl (we opted to not find out at the ultrasounds), and that this would be a specific example in her life of God covering her and covering her situation and circumstance.  Sure enough, she was born perfectly formed, perfectly healthy, and our midwife later came back and said she thought there had been a mistake in the ultrasounds that indicated she was at risk.  I don't know if it was a mistake or a miraculous healing, but either way, we give God the credit for protecting and covering over that little girl.

Source: Gabe K.