Happy Thanksgiving! The adventures of creating this holiday in New Zealand were many upon many...yet, the food came out awesome and stomachs were full!
Tuesday and Wednesday were chalked full of work at the church (from 8am-8pm!) as Ken and I prepared for taking Thursday off work to cook and entertain Dr. and Richard Ross as well as the LCNZ President Rob and his wife Besty who also joined us for the feast, bringing the sacred turkey! :) But Ken and my adventure began Wednesday evening after share n care (ministry at church where we provide a meal and short message with a song for underprivileged people in the community.) We went out to the grocery store to buy the ingredients needed to create Thanksgiving. However, hours later at midnight, we still couldn't find canned pumpkin, canned "fried onions", or a pre-made pie crust! However, we decided to use the pie base sold in the store (which I had to roll out and pre-cook), boil a full pumpkin and mash it into pumpkin pulp for truly pumpkin pie, and for the green bean casserole, we substituted onion stalk and cornflakes...Our sweet potatoes were made from orange "kumra" and the pecans cost close to $10 for one cup, but in the end, everything melded together to create absolute tastiness! It was a great success, one that Ken and I are both very proud of considering the trials of creating these foods in another country, not to mention this being our first Thanksgiving together (and my first at cooking any and all of the dishes!) The fellowship with other Americans (Rob and Besty are originally from Phoenix, but lived in Australia for the past 20-some years and now are here in NZ) was wonderful and really brought to life what the pilgrims must have felt like being the only "british" in their new world, eating together trying to create foods like the kind from back home, yet making due with what their new world gave them...
The table we borrowed from church
Thanksgiving meets New Zealand
Cooking in my little kitchen
Dr. Ross helping me prepare
The stove is full!
Pastor Ross, Dr. Ross, Besty and Rob
Our first Thanksgiving together
Some answered prayer: Two days before Thanksgiving, our boxes from home finally arrived after five long months! It was a Godsend to have all my kitchen stuff for preparing food on Thursday. Awesome.
Friday and Saturday were filled with meetings for Ken and Dr. Ross as he was evaluated thus far on his internship. We also had a lot of fun during free times to just chat with the Ross's and enjoy each other's company. Saturday evening we went to Lawrence and Judi's for dinner and a tour of a kiwi farm. Sunday's service was a preview to Christmas since it was Nov 25th and wan an outreach service. We invited Mrs. Crawford, our landlady from England and she really enjoyed the service. Afterwards, Ken drove Dr. and Pastor Ross back down to Wellington to catch their flight back home. I went over to Judi's again for a bridal shower for her niece. It was great to hang out with some other girls my age and enjoy the afternoon with games, nibbles, and fellowship.
Monday we had a doctor's appointment for Ken...please keep him in prayer. He has a syst in his neck, and lately it's been bothering him and has grown. So please keep that in prayer. Also, my mom called to tell me she has an ultrasound test in December before coming out to New Zealand, so please keep her in your prayers and thoughts.
The verse that really touched us this week is found in Col 1 which states "May you be strengtehen with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy" - how awesome is that? That our God gives us ALL His power to endurance and be patient with joy in all life's circumstances?! May we all pray the prayer of faith that Christ truely does and will fill us with all power for the path our lives take us down! Amen.
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