Connections

We are....

A Family

On a Great Adventure around the World

Learning about new cultures and customs while

Serving and Growing in Jesus Christ

The timeline....

Left our home December 16, 2012

Spent Christmas at grandparents house

Left USA for New Zealand December 30, 2012 to January 25, 2013

Australia January 25 to February 11

Fiji February 11 to February 14

USA February 14 to February 21 (grandparents house)

Feb 21 to Mar 13 Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and then on to....

Israel, Kenya, Tanzania, Turkey, Greece, through Europe and back home by mid August.

We hadn't planned on blogging but have decided to do so after the first part of this trip has been completed.  Why?  In a word....the people we have met....staying connected to them, retaining connections to our friends and family back home and creating a record for ourselves to look back on.

While we had many wonderful experiences in New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji, the most pleasant surprise were the connections we made to people in those countries.  From a New Zealand couple who saved us when we locked our keys in our rental car, to friends we met 20 years ago hosting us in New Zealand + her amazing cousin’s family who we had NEVER met hosting us in Australia, the American woman we met at an Australian church, the incredible chance meeting with a woman who helped connect us to a one in a million meeting with a man whose efforts have literally helped millions of poor people around the world, his biographer (who is married to a non-evil investment banker), the Op Shop manager in New Zealand who might have one of the greatest stories of faith and listening to God's promptings & acting on them to the Op Shop manager in Australia who made us feel so welcome, the 'awesome' surf instructors in Australia + their friend who looked after AJ while we were all learning to surf, the putt putt golf place owners who were world travelers in their own right, the tough guy Aussie law enforcement officer married to the super talented pastor / lawyer / entrepreneur / singer of a little Aussie church (quite a combo, eh?), the passionate man of God who oozes God’s love with the greatest laugh you will ever hear, the lovely couple who owns a successful retail chain in Australia, and all the little kids that AJ decide to befriend in playgrounds around that part of the world…..

The Great Adventure has been that indeed and a wonderful surprise in every possible way imaginable.  The surprises are sure to continue as God weaves more people and experiences into this tapestry of His making. 

We will write of ‘flashback’ experiences in places we have already been as time goes by but in just a few hours we leave for Nicaragua, so that’s all for now…..

Andrew, Rachel and the kids (V, H, S, AJ)