friends

it's been wonderful this week to look around us and discover a group of people who are quickly becoming great friends. i'd like to share some of them with you so that you can join this circle of wonderful people as well :) sorry about the lack of pictures lately...i've neglected my responsibility to bring my camera along with me.

sunday - last week, we joined chris and sarah for dinner at their house in rangiora, about 40 minutes north of christchurch. they're a married couple around our age that we met at church (as we have all of our close friends here), who met when chris was preaching on a fountain in the middle of town a few years ago and sarah and her friend sat down nearby to listen and (let's be honest) to make fun of him. she was eventually won over both by his message and by him, and was baptized in the church about a month ago. they live out in the country with their five horses, with which they want to start a program to teach special needs kids how to ride and care for the animals. they're a very cool couple.

tuesday - the church has a young adults group that meets on tuesdays evenings, to which has been added a late night disney singalong at the encouragement of our friend phil, who is also the church receptionist. he moved up from invercargill (in the far south; they roll their Rs very distinctively) in january to make a career change after a few years of working in the film industry. he was once served lunch by anthony hopkins on the set of "the world's fastest indian", which totally beats our best movie claim to fame of having the crew trailers from the coen brothers' "a serious man" on campus at north central.

friday/saturday - we spent all weekend at church setting up for the maximise conference, a music conference that city church hosted jointly with vision college next door. we had a great time serving with so many great people, like alice (the moped rider whom i've mentioned before) and her boyfriend ed (who just bought a motorcycle to keep up with her), and rebecca, who's just finished her course at the nearby college of tourism and travel, and josh, an avid tramper who has recently returned from a 12-day hike through the mountains from arthur's pass to lewis pass. the topic of ultimate frisbee was raised for the first time today, which excited bryan to no end. there may be some boy "dates" in the near future, as bryan's also been eager to get the guys together for a zombie movie marathon.

unfortunately, this weekend we didn't get to hang out with hannah, who left today for a five week trip to uganda to serve at an orphanage with a missions organization and very generously left us the use of her car while she's gone. we are, of course, planning at least one road trip in the next month while we have a free set of wheels. lake tekapo? mt cook? kaikoura? hanmer springs? all of the above?

-rachel