God must have been smiling when he was creating New Zealand. There are beautiful landscapes everywhere you look and it is a country that showcases the artistry of God.
We started out our tour at the Manakau Baptist Church where we were hosted for three nights and had our first concert. We then visited Katikati Christian Center which normally has a congregation of 40 people, but our visit saw 600 people attend – 75% of whom were non-believers.
We visited Bethlehem Baptist Church in Tauranga – a very beautifully designed church that, to our surprise, got its inspiration and exact measurements from Watoto church in Uganda. We also performed at another beautiful church in Whangaparaoa where we could see the ocean through the windows as we sang & danced.
Throughout our time in New Zealand, we had many non-Christians come to see the concerts and over 100 people gave their lives to Christ! A 17 year old young man, who had plans of committing suicide, attended one of our concerts and he was set free through the message of love and hope presented through the music, dance and stories of Choir 56.
Stories of Love & Hope
We were also able to spend time relaxing and our time in NZ was filled with a lot of fun activities. In Matamata we visited the Totara Springs Park where the children went on a flying fox and an adventure ride in an open roof truck. The children also got to go to the cinemas for the first time in their life and in Rotorua we saw some hot wells heated by volcanic larva. In Waiwera we went to the heated pools which had different slides and even a poolside cinema. The kids all agreed that this was one of the most exciting activities of the tour!
We had a concert at the prestigious St Kentigern College and our host homes were some of the most beautiful we have had the pleasure of staying in. Peter and Henry even got a chance to stay next to the Prime Ministers house!
Our last concert was at Life church – one of NZ’s largest churches – where we had over 2,000 people come for our concert. This was one of the biggest concerts on tour thus far and we received a great response from the crowd.
The four weeks we have spent in New Zealand have been amazing weeks filled with testimony after testimony confirming that God is with us as we tour. The tour has seen us reach lots of new churches and people in this beautiful country, lots of merchandise was sold and donations which were over and above what we had expected. We are so grateful to God for the success we had in our short time in New Zealand.
Thanks to our partners Tear Fund for all their hard work and for all the fun times we had!
We know for sure that the best is yet to come.
Love Choir 56
Miss you all dearly, thanks for the loving time we spent together. Uncle Nico