Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Beginning

Thanks for tuning in to share in our excitement as we make the big move to New Zealand! This whole crazy fun adventure began last February, when Kris started looking into some new ministry opportunities. Imagine our surprise when one day he received an email from a Knox Church in Lower Hutt, New Zealand; they were asking him to consider applying for the position they had open! He applied, and they set up a few Skype interviews over the next several weeks. In May, he officially accepted the position of Pastor of Children's Ministry. They also hired a guy from Michigan to be the Youth Pastor, so we look forward to getting to know him and his wife.

Here's the church's website:
www.knoxstc.org.nz

Since accepting the position, we have submitted the FBI background checks (which came back just yesterday, thank God!), had a garage sale, looked into shipping companies/phone services/banks etc., and are currently in the process of selling our house. We hope to close in the next couple of weeks. This weekend we will complete the visa application, mail it on Monday, and pray that it only takes 10 days like they told us. As soon as we get the visa approved, we book our plane tickets and ship our stuff!

We are headed to Montana for a week (Sept. 5-12), then we hope to leave for NZ by September 18. We have seen God's hand guiding us through this whole process, and we look forward to seeing what He does in and through us in a new place!