Going East

Things I learned on the journey east...

• 1 car + 5 people + 7 hours - coffee + Diana Ross CD on repeat = sore butt + tired head + feeling of wanting to rip off ears.
• when Tuwhakairiora is the shortened version of a name (Tu-moana-kotore-i-whakairi-oratia), you can't really complain about Philippa.
• how to say Tuwhakairora
• when sleeping marae style, ear plugs are your best friend. Next year...nose plugs!
• the skirting board type thing that goes between the wall and the ceiling is called a scotia. 
• when scraping wallpaper off with your fingernails and you get a big chunk, it can be surprisingly satisfying.
• a  l i t t l e  h a r d  w o r k  c a n  g o  a  l o n g  w a y.

Te Araroa is about as far east as you can go in New Zealand - the first place to see the sunrise. Every year, for the last six, a group (mostly from Hamilton) has driven the windy roads along the wild coastline to spend Labour Weekend serving the small community. Incedo, who organise it, are 6 years into a 30 year relationship with the area. 

 When the idea of taking a group of people to do some projects there was first approached, the people who know the community best, said something along the lines of - we don't want you coming up here to spend a weekend making yourselves feel good, then leaving and never looking back. If you're interested in the community, we want a commitment for 30 years...

 The commitment was made and year 6 rolled on. This year, the project involved Uncle BoBo and a house in desperate need of some love. The plan for the weekend? A new roof, new insulation, a repainted exterior, a repainted interior, a new ranch slider and two new decks. Day one: sanding, sanding outside, sanding inside, sanding high, sanding low, lots of sanding. Then a bit of exterior painting, taking off the old roof, laying some pink batts, and putting on as much of the new roof as possible before...


Day two: rain, wind and a bit more rain. Not a great combination of things when you're up on a roof. Thankfully, just the one fall off the roof. Thankfully soft landing (well, maybe the guy he landed on was not so thankful). Thankfully, lots of indoor jobs to be done - painting on the wallpaper, stripping the wallpaper when the paint caused it to peel off, repainting after the wallpaper had been stripped. Some carried on well into the night, but by the end of day two, the difference was huge and the house was ready for BoBo to come back.

Though there wasn't a whole lot of spare time, some was made for the important things - the eating, the gathering together. Each night, we'd come together in the wharenui to talk, to build relationship, to pray. Apart from the smell of wet feet, it was a pretty precious time. From three year old kids to much older adults, everyone was involved. There was togetherness, there was appreciation for each other, there was unity. Unity despite differences. Coming from Northern Ireland, being pretty much as far from home as I could be, I found it pretty remarkable, pretty valuable.

I've been involved in missions before in a few different countries, but this one was different. It wasn't about the project, it wasn't about achieving a goal and standing back to admire our work and giving ourselves a pat on the sore, tired back. It was about the people, people coming together, none better than the others, none less valuable than their neighbour. People, worth our time. People worth our hearts. People changed. People blessed

(I was trying to come up with some wise crack about wise men coming from the east, but the cliched cheesiness made me want to throw up a little bit, so I won't bother.)