What a Week

Sorry I haven't written in awhile; it's been an eventful and emotional week. Here's a breakdown:

Saturday - Landlord visited for the first time. He also learned for the first time about the issue we had with the water heater and our huge electric bill. (A landlord is different from a property manager in NZ.)

Sunday - Wonderful church message about depending on the Lord and being honest with Him in our prayers.

Monday - Kelly Temp Agency called with a job opportunity doing some data entry work with Courier Post (like Fed Ex in the states). But first, I had to interview with Courier Post to see if they accepted me.

Tuesday - Looked at a "fully-furnished" flat with a friend from Korea who is also trying to get a flat for a couple of months. The flat was nicer than ours but still not up to snuff in the area of cleanliness. Cara and I determined that 'clean' is one of our top requirements for the next flat we rent. Also, apparently 'fully furnished' in Hamilton means: comes with a fridge, stove, washing machine, couch, table, and bed. Hmm...
Went to our first 18ups Bible Study that evening and met more Christian Young Adults.
Pastor Campbell offered us the use of a used car for three months that he just bought!

Wednesday - Morning job interview with Courier Post. I'm not sure how it went. They wanted me to have Excel experience to do a job that's basically data entry into Excel. They requested that Kelly test me on my Excel knowledge to see how much I had.
The landlord called in the evening to offer us either $400 towards our electric bill or free rent for a month that would only take effect during our last month in the Flat. (Good thing we've decided this is our last month!)

Thursday - Went to the Hamilton Dept. of Building and Housing in person to get a copy of a legal document that would help our situation. Discovered that the people we talked to on the phone were wrong. We have not rights as a tenant to receive compensation for our electric bill from the landlord. It's a 'grey' area. He would only have had to pay if he did not fix the water heater immediately.
Went to Lodge Rentals and informed our property manager that we would like to do the free month of rent. Then informed him this would be our last month.
Met with our landlord in the evening and told him we accepted the offer of free rent for a month.
This was a rough day!!

Friday - Took the beginner and intermediate Excel computer test at Kelly Services. Did awesome with beginner, not so well with intermediate. My Kelly consultant didn't seem too fazed about that. We'll see what Courier Post thinks.
Worked most of the day at the church putting together creative prayer stations for Sunday's service. It was a special project that Pastor Campbell asked me and my sister to do since we had a creative background.
Received the car from Campbell. First thing we did was drive out of the city towards the mountains. Somehow we ended up by the Mormon Tabernacle - Temple Mount. The building was beautiful - too bad what's being taught inside is rotten.

Saturday - Went to Field Days, NZ's largest agricultural fair. Can you imagine Cara and I at a fair about farm stuff?! It was fun. The highlights for me were seeing the wearable art fashion show where the designers had to use only material found on a farm, and the tractor race - I didn't know it was possible for those things to go that fast!
In the evening there was a Rugby game at the Rugby Stadium near our flat. The New Zealand All Blacks verses Canada. The game wasn't that loud, but there was an awesome fireworks display at the start of the game.

Today - Talked to a family from church who are in need of house sitters for 6 weeks starting in July. Now that we have a car we can do this. They are glad to have us live in their house (free of rent) while they are gone. Thank you Lord. After all that's happened with our flat situation it'll be good to not have to deal with property managers and landlords for a little bit.

Well, that's the events of the week. It's been long. I'm glad it's over. God is good. He continues to provide when and where we least expect it.