Tauranga

Kia Ora! Wow a lot has happened these past five days. Friday we left for Tauranga which is about 2 and ½ hours north of Auckland. We had the huge honor of be invited to stay on a Marae (pronounced like “more-eye”) which is kinda like a Maori reservation; it’s a place that Maori people come to gather for various reasons; it’s a hub of history, culture, ancestry and family. So we arrive on the Marae but you can’t just walk onto the Marae, you have to be called and welcomed onto the Marae and there’s this whole protocol that you have to go through before the Maori will welcome you onto the Marae. So we all gathered at the gate, the girls were all wearing skirts and were standing in the front and the men were standing in the back; we also had a couple of Maori girls with us who would answer for us (it’s a call and response thing). So one of the Maori women starts to say a bunch of stuff and she calls “Haremai” which means “welcome”; now that we have been called we begin to walk onto the Marae while the Maori girls respond back; this goes back and forth for a little bit. Then we are allowed to sit down in a designated area, men now in front (the men’s position is always to protect the women, it has nothing to do with status). Now a Maori man speaks for a long time, we have no idea what he’s saying because it’s all in Maori. Then after he talks for a while they all stand and sing a song; now it’s our turn. Andy, the registrar, stands up to speak for us now and introduce us; he thanks the Maori people and blesses them then tells them about who we are, where we come from; then we all stand up and we sang a song back to them, we sang “How Great Is Our God.” Then after we finished our song Andy walked forward and laid a gift on the ground, then without turning his back on them, he walked backwards to his seat. They received the gift then sang another song and officially welcomed us onto the Marae saying that it was now our home and that this was now our family. Then the best part, we all hongied (this is a Maori way of greeting where two people touch noses and foreheads and inhale in order that you may share their breathe aka share their life). We went down the line and did the hongie with everyone on the Maori, sealing the deal; this was my favorite part, it just really made you feel welcome. After that we were treated to a traditional Maori meal: pig, cabbage, sweet potato, stuffing, and pumpkin that was all cooked underground. It was really really really good!

            We stayed in the fatanui (fah-ta-new-E which means “peace”) on the Marae and the whole building is carved and painted, all of which represent stories. The building itself represents a body the front you see the head at the top of the house and the arms stretched out, welcoming all in. Once you get inside you are in the womb of the house; you look up and see this central and wide pillar running all the way down to the end of the house; this represents the spine and all the posts running from it represent the ribs. The symbolism behind all 27 of us sleeping in there together was just really cool. We were all sleeping in this “womb” and it just spoke a lot of unity over us; we’re all brothers and sisters and we’re all together in this….it’s really hard to explain.

            So all this happened on Friday! We all slept on the floor in the fatanui. Our first night together we found out who snores, who screams, who farts, who talks, and apparently I sing in my sleep lol. So Saturday we went to Mount Maunganui which is a volcano and a beautiful beach area. I saw sheep in New Zealand for the first time and I climbed all the way to the summit of the mountain; the view was breath-taking, it was hard not to cry.

            Saturday night Josie tells us that on Sunday that some of the Maori people come to the Marae for church (Protestant) and that they want us to take over both services and speak. Josie was like, “This will be great training for outreach so who wants to speak?” I didn’t volunteer but was volunteered by some friends to speak…so Sunday I got to preach. I preached on love and how true love means that we must die to self; preaching out of the book of John (all over the book). Everyone said that I did really well and I got a lot of compliments. One of the biggest things I really took away from that whole experience was just how faithful God is; when I was 6 years old I was told I was going to be a prophet to the nations and now here I am, in the nations preaching. So that was super cool.

            Now let me just tell you a little something about Maori church…it goes on FOREVER! Apparently in Maori culture, one of the big things is that everyone has a voice and that everyone is allowed to speak; you can imagine how this would alter a church service. Well worship was beautiful, I get up give my sermon and I thought ok that’s it….NO. People start getting up after me and giving more “sermons”, some people would just talk about stuff that you would share over coffee or something but they shared it nonetheless. Like five people get up and speak and the pastor of the church hasn’t even spoken yet. Needless to say church went on for 3 hours……….it was beautiful but long and the night service was no different; it went on for 3 and ½ hours, except the only difference was that I had the giggles; I laughed for like an hour straight. I’d like to say the Holy Spirit just came on me and I just responded by laughing, but that’s not what was happening. I was tired, my butt was sending pain all the way up to my head and everyone of my friends I looked at had the funniest look in the world on their faces; so of course I couldn’t help but laugh. And ya’ll know that there’s nothing worse than getting the giggles in church lol.

            Monday through Wednesday we woke up every morning and went to the Tauranga House of Prayer (which is apart of IHOP); we spent 4 hours there Monday and Tuesday and then 2 hours on Wednesday. After THOP we went back to the Marae for lunch then rushed back for lectures with Aaron Walsh, who’s the founder of THOP. He blew our minds and challenged us like no other speaker has challenged us thus far. The lectures are definitely increasing in intensity as the weeks go by. Which let me just take this time to say that I can’t believe that I’m on week 4!!!!!! Ugh anyways; then Wednesday we drove back to Auckland.

            Tauranga, the Marae, and being out of the city was so incredibly peaceful and was very much needed but we all were actually starting to get homesick for Auckland which has started to feel like home; this really surprised us because we all thought that we would never want to leave the country but we’ve got so many different relationships going on here in Auckland that it just feels like home to us now.

            Yeah so that was my Marae/Maori/Tauranga experience.