Greetings from down under

Thank you for all the emails we have received from people. The update to the church website looks great and the blog is a useful tool to keep in touch. We are both well and settling into life in Wellington, New Zealand. We are renting a flat overlooking Wellington Harbour in an area called Brooklyn, about 30 minutes walk from work. there are still many places we have not been and wish to go, but we have only been here Laurence is really enjoying his job, although Carolyn is finding hers quite challenging at the moment. We have both travelled with work and on our own to various parts of New Zealand, although 6 months!
Wellington has been a good choice of location. It is central to a variety of landscapes, from tropical coastline to volcanoes, mountains and bush only a few hours away. We climbed a 1100m peak called Kapakapanui a few weeks ago, which would have been a Munro in Scotland, but here looked like a little foothill! There is also a wealth of entertainment and hundreds of cafés selling flat whites, short blacks and other mystifying types of coffee (some people say Wellington is powered by coffee beans).
We spent some time looking for a church that we were comfortable with, and in the process shared with a wide range of denominations. It was encouraging to see how many different ways the Lords word is being delivered, encompassing many different tastes and background, including a number of rock n roll type churches. We have finally found Karori Baptist Church (KBC), which has a friendly family atmosphere and similar to Hilton in many ways. KBC is keen to outreach into the community and then beyond. Now that we are more settled we are trying to identify our role to make this happen.

Hope all is well with you,
Love from Laurence and Carolyn