Soul Food

This morning I woke up to rainy weather. My initial plan was to hitch hike to church, but instead I walked down the hill and called a taxi. I figured no one would be willing to take me to the church outside of Frankton. By walking down the hill first, I saved about 10 bucks. I heard about this church from one of the ladies at work and have been excited to go. 


I'm used to going to the movies alone, eating at restaurants alone, and sometimes going to church alone. For some odd reason, going to Church alone this morning was different. I felt like the new kid in town all over again for the first 20 mins. I guess I better get used to the feeling since I am the new kid in town. I was the first Texan to ever attend there which is pretty cool...or not...depends how you look at it. I got a lot of "Bible Belt" comments, and "Do you ride horses to school?" comments. The message today was about "Growth". It really hit home when he said, "It's not how well you start out, it's how you finish." I can relate this to so much including my trip but more importantly, my life. I'm off in this beautiful country living the dream. It would be easy to say, "I'm saved and know where I'm going when I die so I'm just going to live it up." I need to live each day for him and continue to grow as a Christian. It was a lot like my church from college, except smaller, which doesn't surprise me since New Zealand isn't a religious country. I'm just glad I found somewhere to belong. 


I decided since I was already pretty far from my house that I might as well walk to the grocery store. I've been an involuntary vegetarian the last 7 days. The grocery store was still pretty far away from the church, but it had stopped raining and it felt good to walk. I was walking along the fence line and decided that I should cut through this beautiful green field. (Like greener than green) I climbed over in my church clothes and started on my way. I wasn't really paying attention to anything, just putting one foot in front of the other and humming a song, when out of nowhere, the grass changed and I was standing by a red flag. Crap! I was standing on a putting green. I had been walking across a golf course! I looked around and noticed 3 men watching me. Embarrassed, I waved, smiled, and picked up my pace. 


I finally got to the grocery store and decided to put groceries on my credit card. Yikes. I tried not to go to the grocery store until after I ate something, but I hadn't eaten dinner the night before or breakfast this morning. Not by choice, trust me. Saving all my money for rent. Let me just say that shopping for food while you are hungry is the worst. I think I'll regret my "credit card choice" next month but it was so worth it today. Hopefully I'll have a job by the time that bill comes in. More importantly, I bought meat. Praise the Lord. 


The hike back was awful. I had to walk back to my town which is slightly uphill, and then waaay up my hill to the house. (Katie, only you know what I went through. I walked further than the airport!) I had four bags, my backpack, a bottle of red wine, and was in my church clothes. Zero fun. 


It was a good day in New Zealand. I found my church, I ate and have food for the next 2 weeks, got a great workout in, and took a nap. Looking forward to the week ahead of me and praying that I find more work.