Show time

I looked at my watch when I left the cozy Laflin household and it was about 4:50 AM Wednesday, Jan 19. On that same watch, finally in Auckland, it read 10:45 pm on Thursday. If I did my math right, that is almost 42 hours of traveling... either in flight or waiting in the airports. It was a marathon but I made it! The flights went well. Strangely enough I sat to a couple from Hickman on my flight to Dallas Fort Worth, and a guy from LA on the flight to LA. They both had very interesting stories. I again walked away, as I have many times, amazed at God's work in each life. The path that each individual takes. Each person has a unique story to tell. Pretty amazing. It also makes me thankful for God's work in my own life... the presence of Christ in a person's life changes everything. Brings hope when there really is a lot of things not bringing hope, brings peace in the face of all kinds of circumstances, brings a true lasting purpose and meaning where there really isn't otherwise, brings the type of love and relationship that everyone is searching for and needing, and brings the reconciliation with God that we all are critically desperate for. It just blows me away to think about Him walking around so loudly in my life, so loud, that I can not help but to hear. To have the people and experiences He has given to me... man.

Another sort of odd though that came to mind when I was on the plane and looking out the window was an analogy of perspective. Trees. I saw a forest of trees. They looked so tiny. Tiny dark dots. Not the normal perspective that I usually see trees from. I wondered to myself: 'Is this how God's sees trees, from way up here?' Is this how he sees us, these tiny ants scattering about here and there? Then I thought to how I usually see the tree. I usually see it close up. It's big. All details are in view. I can feel the bark or observe its groovy texture. I can see the individual leaves on the branches, even pick one and marvel at the tiny veins that feed the leaf. I can look at the varying seed the tree produces and drops on the ground. I can watch the birds and other animals that live in its branches. I can here the gentle melody of the wind making its way through the leaves. All these details that I am so separated from way up here in the air plane. From up here, at 35,000 ft, I can see things I would not dream of seeing on the ground. I can see not just one tree but thousands of trees! I can see where the forest begins and where it ends at the same time. It is a huge perspective up here. And what is crazy to me is, God has the power to have both perspectives simultaneously. He knows the up close and personal of our lives and the entire road map... right there. I also saw the earth as little shapes and colors, farm grounds, roads, bluffs... it looked like a quilt. I saw rivers and all the intricate designs made by all the little tributaries of the rivers. I saw miles and miles of the ground below, far into the horizon, too far to see. MASSIVE. I thought about the great expanse of air between me and the ground. How much volume that must be. If there were a container, how large it would have to be to fit all that air. All these thoughts and so much more led me to re-realize what a huge, mysterious and unfathomable God I know and serve. Wow.

Here is a story: the international plane. I flew with V Australia airline. I came to find out this is a brand new line, just 2 years old. All the planes are brand spankin new. When I checked with them in LA, they were blaring a mix of rap, reggae, and rave music. It was a very modern, neat, and clean set up. All employees were sharply dressed. Very mellow feel, like almost a fun environment compared to the usual rushed, no fun, standardized feel of checking in for a flight. Hard to describe. I liked it. Matt was the guy that helped me. He was great, switched me to an awesome seat. And this plane was massive. A 747 I believe. It was 50 rows long, which feels like a mile in an airplane. It had three sections of three seats, for a total of 9 seats wide, plus room for two walk ways that extend the entire length of the plane. It had digital flat screens behind each seat and a remote that was everything from a video game controller to the button that turned on your overhead light. I had a sweet seat. It was in the middle by the emergency door. Now this door is huge, so there is a lot of room between me and the next row. This means that I have a ton of leg room and the bathroom station was right there. Clutch. The plane also had a wet bar toward the front for any beverage that you wanted. We were fed a surprisingly nice hot meal. Plane = absolutely crazy. It reminded me of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Dallas. Amazing.

I had the privilege of sitting next to a 23 year old Australian chick named Emma. She was making a return from Cancun. She has not gone to college but is thinking about it. She works for a pharmacutical company and, like many of the students I know, is having a difficult time deciding what to do with her career. We probably talked for 2 hours straight about random stuff, mostly comparing and contrasting the life of an Australian to an American. Fascinating stuff. Overall I found us more alike than different. The thing that got to me the most was how she and the flight attendants that were Aussies, structure their sentences. I cant begin to explain it, but it's different. Different vocabulary too. And of course the accent. A couple of words that come to mind are 'ages' 'bizzare' 'I reckon.' Sir sounds like 'suh' They have different names for alot of things. For instance they call McDonald's 'mickies' and trucks 'utes.' Strange. I was sad to hear that faith is not an important aspect of life of many people in the area that Emma comes from. She said many people only go to church on Christmas and Easter, which is not too far off from many people in the U.S. I guess. She reffered to it as something good to have in a tough time, like a death. I felt for her. Even though I am not even sure of the depth and richness of a living, vibrant relationship with Christ can look like... I was sad that she is missing out of a daily walk with the Lord. If anyone reads this, and feels the same, pray for Emma.

After a long conversation I began to feel tired. It was like 3 am central time at that point, and I was not sure what the actual time was. At this point it seemed it had been days since I had slept. And my sense of time was really confused. So I figured I got 3-6 hours of in and out sleep. Better than I thought. I was next to the wall of the airplane so that helped to have to lean on. After a woke up one time I could not go back to sleep so I watched the movie 'Salt' on my personal TV screen that pulled out from the side of my seat. It was legit. I did some reading. And, finally, after what seemed like a week on the plane, we arrived in Sydney. I really wished my chiropractor was there after the flight... man I was messed up. Dr. Nick... can you come to Auckland???

I found the other three guys right away. We walked around the airport awhile because we arrived in Sydney at 6 am their time and did not leave until about noon. Then we found the others all together. It is quite the group. All types of personalities. It will be fun to get to know each other.  One thing that came to mind was the top notch group of individuals that the Lord has allowed me to share my life with back home. I am a blessed man. As I expected many of the group members do not know the Lord at this point as the subject has already come up in many conversations so far. Prayer would be appreciated for these guys. We have Steph, Karen, Sarah, Chirstina, Alli, Kitty, Manisha, Jake, Pat, Austin, and I am forgetting someone... shoot. We have a couple college grads... which by the way college is referred to as the "uni" down here which in reality sounds like "uneeeee" with a really hard E sound... its funny. We also have a couple of high school grads who are taking a year off between school, and also one that is taking a year off in the middle of her uni time. So a good mix of ages as well. We hung out and played some cards... took turns teaching each other different games which was neat. Then it was a short 3 hour flight from Sydney to Auckland. I had the privilege of a window seat. The view of New Zealand coming in was fantastic. The coast was as scenic as you might invision. towering rock walls about the beach with rich green vegetation growing betwen and on top of rocks. Pretty cool sight. Then there were neat little farms nesseled into rolling hills and lush trees and fields. Then Auckland. We got in at about 5 pm there time (we lost about 2 hours) Auckland is huge, I think its just over 1 million people. Lots of houses jammed packed together. Auckland's airport was really neat. We went through customs with no issues and got our bags. We met Holly, our leader, right away. I call Holly 'Fish' now since her last name is Fisher. She calls me 'a laf' haha, its funny. She is really neat 27 year old gal. Very energetic and enthusiastic. Very knowledgable about many countries, especially Australia, NZ, and the US. She grew up in Australia, went to college in Oregon and has lived and traveled in Australia and NZ since graduating college. She is a really healthy eater (which I am pumped about because our food is great) really passionate about the conserving the enviornment and wildlife. She is a lot of fun. After we met her I got my first NZ money. It is pretty sweet stuff. They are bills similar to U.S. dollars but in all different colors. It has parts that are tranparent that are kind of groovy. It is really thin like paper but when you go to tear it... you can't. As hard as you want to pull you wont tear it. It has the consistency of leather. Fish said you can put it through the washer and be just fine. After we got out of the airport we visited this place called Mt. Eden. Besides the Sky Tower (which looks a lot like the Space Needle in Seattle) Mt. Eden is the highest point in Auckland. It sits about right in the middle so you can see Auckland in all directions. Mt. Eden is a long time dormant volcanic hill. It has a crator that has been overgrown by grass and weeds. Auckland is neat because it is in a very "thin" part of the country. There is water on both sides of the city and places that the water goes straight through. So boating and sailing is like all over the place. There are lots of harbors too. Auckland has a ton of hills. Giant hills. Steep hills. If they had ice and cold here transportation would be impossible. It has a really modern, chill, liberal feel to it. The city is REALLY clean. It is not uncommon to see people walking around in their bare feet, it is that clean. Very active. People are all thin. Lots of smokers though, that surprised me. There is a lot of American music... I noticed that in Sydney too. It seems like they are about 6 months to one year behind though on what is popular right now in the states. I really like Auckland. I dont really like cities but I think I could live in Auckland. We stopped in the small pub called 'The little Turkish Cafe' and I had a chicken 'Kabab' which is basically a big sandwhich with lamb, chicken, and veggies on it with a special sauce. Real good. We kind of talked a little bit about stuff as a group and got back to our hostile. Our hostile is really nice actually. It feels like a dorm. Its got a huge kitchen, lounge areas, and three floors. It has all kinds of advertising on things to do in Auckland. It is overwhelming on how much there is to do here. I feel like I could spend 8 weeks in Auckland alone and still not do / see everything. There is all kinds of people here too, from every where. Different laanguages, everything. It's really cool. Got to take a shower which was amazing... I was feeling so disgusting. Had a great night sleep, out like a light.

Today we got up early and went for a swim in Mission Bay. It has been cooler (50-60s) cloudy and rainy both days we have been here, so we were a little hesitant on jumping in but the water was great. It was great to swim, I swam quite a ways into the bay. We had a picnic breakfast by the beach which was really good. Then we came back and had an orientation of sorts on the nuts and bolts of the program, expectations, and so forth. We also asked each other very interesting questions like what is your most embarassing moment, dream job, most desired super power, one thing we will teach the group, what our faith/religion is, one dream or goal... and tons others. Really cool way to get to know each other. We got into a really cool discussion about faith, really interesting. Man I just dont have time to write about so much of this stuff, and I am typing like a mad man right now!!!! Afer our meeting I went to a grocery store to get some food. REALLY expensive. But I guess it is an island, so everything has to be brought in pretty much. I ate some of this stuff for lunch because lunch was on our own. Then we split in groups of 3 and had an "Amazing Race" around Auckland. This forced us to find different things in the city and talk to people in order to answer different questions (people were the only resource of information we could use). Really neat experience. Some of these people... their accent is so thick it hardly sounds like English! Really fun though. We had a great time talking to one of the students doing his masters at the University of Auckland. Really cool guy. I guess Aucklanders are also named Jafas. It stand for 'just another f***ing Aucklander' kind of rough but it was a bit amusing. Auckland has over 1/4 of the people in NZ so I guess this is the reason for the joke. The race took about 2.5 hours to do and it was a blast. We came back and had some down time, then at supper together. Three of us will be cooking supper most nights. These three did a terrific job. We had a type of lasagne and mixed greens for a salad, really good stuff. Now I am packed and ready for tomorrow. We will be taking off to the Bay of Islands where we will be working on our first volunteer project. We will have pretty much no electricity or anything there so I will have no communication for the next 5-6 days. NZ is pretty sweet so far, can wait to get started. Hope all at home are doing great!
Cheers!