Moving up and out
- Posted by under Life at Bethel
- Monday February 23rd, 2009
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Well it is our last day in New Zealand. We have been here 6 weeks and now we are headed to Australia for 7 days, Singapore for 2 days, and then back to China until April 15. These past couple weeks have been crazy busy. We have been traveling for about 3 weeks and during those 3 weeks only had 5 or 6 days at our base. Therefore, there has been lots and lots of bonding time in the vans :). Our last trip this past week we went to Taupo, Rotorua, and Waihi. This was our busiest excursion yet. In Taupo, we did bungy jumping and sky diving. In Rotorua a group went on a tour of the LOTR Hobbiton set. We also got to go luging (it’s like a one person bobsled that you ride down a huge, winding, concrete hill. We also went to a cultural center to learn more about the culture of New Zealand. Lastly we went to Waihi Beach where I had a bit of an accident.
There is a huge rock about 200 feet out from shore. A bunch of us decided to swim out to it and climb on top of it. Well we got out there. Before I continue, let me preface this. The waves that come in hit this rock and then come back out again therefore creating an undertow. Ok, so I was kneeling on the rocks trying to get my balance when the wave came in and then out and dragged my knees across the bottom of the rocks.
Blood...I'm basically hardcore.
I did conquer the rock with a puddle of blood at my feet. I also needed reassurance as I was about to get off. I asked the people that I was with that even if there were sharks, I needed them to tell me that there were no sharks and that I was not going to get attacked because I was gushing blood. They all told me I would be fine and I began my swim back to shore.
That’s about it for now. More to come later!!! See ya when I get to China!
Lake Taupo
On the first leg of our 3 part week-long adventure, we visited the Lake of Taupo. I know what you’re thinking, “Why did you visit a lake when you’re surrounded by ocean?” Well this lake is the size of Singapore and also a good place to sky dive and bungy jump. So we took advantage of the clear weather conditions and took the plunge from 154 feet above a river, and 12,000 feet out of an airplane!
A few of the brave bungy jump survivors
Rotorua
In the very geothermal active town of Rotorua, we found ourselves for the next couple days of our excursion. We visited the Rotorua Culture Center where we saw some of the volcanic underground activity firsthand and witnessed some authentic Maori culture dances. We learned several interesting things about Aotearoa, the Maori word for New Zealand.
Geyser at Rotorua Cultural Center
Some of us guys enjoying the afternoon of lugging
Hobbiton
On our way to our third and final destination, we made a quick stop in the Shire to see the lasting remains of Hobbiton, from the movie Lord of the Rings. Only part of the set still remained.
Stan and I doing our best at trying to "fit in" in Hobbiton.
Waihi Beach
At Waihi Beach where we stayed for about 3 days, we relaxed and took in the last bits of New Zealand that we would see on this trip. Early one morning we got up and hiked about 45 minutes to watch a goregous sunrise over the Pacific.
Having some fun with the sunrise at Waihi Beach. During the day we traveled a couple hours through winding roads to Cathedral Cove. This beach was used in the second Chronicles of Narnia to shoot one of the opening scenes. A view out the cave at Cathedral Cove
Kip Prenkert’s Funeral
Wakarusa Missionary Church
12 February 2009
Robby Prenkert
The Walk You Remember
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
My dad had a distinctive walk. I suspect that some of you noticed this.
His heels scarcely touched the ground when he strolled from the garden to the back door, down a wooded trail in Ludington, from his car in the parking lot to his spot in the bleachers (omnipresent book in one hand) to watch me play some game.
At times it looked to me as if he were treading delicately on the earth, trying to avoid leaving any imprint in the soil, tip-toeing gently but purposefully to his destination.His tip-toe walk became more pronounced at times. In the driveway shooting hoops, after he’d made twenty or so in a row, realizing he was “on,” he would get an extra spring.
Once when I was very young, we were in the midst of witnessing some dramatic comeback in one of his church league fastpitch softball games at the prairie campgrounds. He was cheering a big hit that drove in a couple runs, extending the rally. He walked past me as I sat, taking it all in on the bench.
On the bench, an awestruck boy who only ever wanted to be like his hero. On the bench but allowed to be a part of the team, witnessing his father nearly levitate, heels five inches off the ground, his face aglow with a joy that can only be known by grown men at play.
My dad had a distinctive walk, and I have a theory about it.
I can see my dad, left hand on left knee, gloved right hand on right knee, waiting and watching from his spot in Right field. He had the uncanny ability to know exactly where a flyball hit his direction was going land a split moment before the batter made contact. They call that getting a jump on the ball.
I can still see him pivot and run, dark hair blown off his forehead, eyes glued to that ball—running. Running on his tip toes. Gliding, it seemed, on the top of the grass.
Many years later I played outfield, too—and I realized something that my dad showed me rather than told me, for that was more his style. I learned that if you run on your toes and not your heels, you land, with each stride, much more delicately. Land on your heels and your head jars and the ball you’re chasing starts to bounce, making it considerably more difficult to catch. But run on your toes and you’ll see the ball fly smoothly toward its home in the deep pocket of your glove as you make that final graceful reach over your shoulder to grab the inning ending out.
When he was a boy, he spent hours just tossing a ball up in the air and chasing after it to make a catch. He and his closest friend, Mike, spent countless hours hitting the ball to one another, chasing down flies. At an early age he learned to run on the balls of his feet, and that must have carried over into his walk, and all the days of his life my dad tread lightly on God’s earth and this kept his eyes clearly focused.
My dad had a distinctive walk, but I don’t know if you ever thought about why.
At sixty five, he still had that spring in his step. I suspect he kept it after knee surgery, back surgery, prostate surgery, heart surgery, multiple kidney stones, and who knows what other aches and pains that inevitably come with age—I suspect he kept it not simply because he had learned how to chase down a ball the way they teach major league outfielders to do it, but because he loved being alive.
He kept that soft bouncing walk because he knew my mom and one way his passionate and voluntary love for her was involuntarily, habitually evidenced was by a spring in each step. You walk with a woman like her for more than forty years and you, too, would retain the spring.
My dad had a distinctive walk, and I want for you to know and remember this.
My dad was an outrageously joyful person, even if he did not express it the same way others might have. But you could see it if you watched his walk. With each step his head bobbed heavenward. Because he enjoyed life, the abundant life offered those who know the ONE who is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.
When I was a boy all I wanted to do was to shoot a basketball like my dad. I wanted to hit a ball the way he did; I wanted to chase after and catch a ball and do it with his grace and style. I still do.
I do not think I walk quite like him, but I have learned a great deal about walking rightly by watching his “walk.” All of us could learn something from the joyfully contented way he walked humbly with his God.
We are sad today and we mourn our loss. But we are also comforted, knowing that now dad runs on those toes without ever growing weary, and walks without ever growing faint.
I know one thing. My dad, like his LORD, would like nothing better than for each of us to “walk on” faithfully, humbly, joyfully, until we, too, are called home.
Bay of Islands
On February 2nd we headed to the Bay of Islands. We spent 5 days in the area and kept really busy each day. Between laying out on the beach and doing some shopping in the town of Paihia, we visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.
Outside the Waitangi meeting house.
On one of the nights, we went on a 22hr cruise on a refurbished once car ferry that had been converted into a “playground” on water. Complete with all the necessities for regular living, the boat hosted all sorts of activities including fishing, shooting, night kayaking, swimming, etc. The following morning we went to the remote Robinson Island where we were snorkeled and hiked.
Robinson Island
South Island
While at the Bay of Islands, we learned that we had a little extra money to fund a small trip to the south island of New Zealand. So the day after we returned from the Bay of Islands, we hopped on a plane southward. We spent our first night exploring the mid-sized city of Christ Church.
Christ Church
We were hosted by the local YWAM group who graciously fed and housed us. The next day we headed even farther south where we climber a smaller mountain called Mt. John.
Pausing on the slopes of Mt. John for a group pic
The next morning we caught this beautiful sunrise. We all agreed that no one single photograph would be able to capture the beauty that we saw in that moment.
Getting up at 6 a.m. for the sunrise was totally worth it
That same morning we went “tramping” (a Kiwi way of saying hiking) along the infamous Mt. Cook. Every turn of the path took us to a new and even more beautiful point than we had seen earlier on the trail!
Doug and I enjoying the glacier river
The hike took about 3 hours and ended with a large glacier lake to admire. We took the liberty of finding some actual bits of glacier ice in the water and sampling it.
Looking off towards Mt. Cook
Tomorrow we are heading off once again for about a week. We will be traveling to Rotorua, Taupo, and Waihi Beach.
