coffee talk: take three

Brooke and I were in an adventurous mood the other night so we decided to head into downtown Auckland the around 10:00PM. It was a very interesting experience and we are looking forward to many more excursions into the heart of the city. One highlight was the street musician we encountered. After giving him a few dollars in change he performed an orginal rap that he wrote about growing up in South Auckland and realizing the disillusionment that came from expecting too much out of the "city of dreams."

The other highlight, besides just observing a new city, was the discovery of Esquires Coffee. This is a cafe fairly similar to a Starbucks. However, one key difference is that on Fridays and Saturdays they are open 24 hours. Now that's my kind of place. The one in the picture sits about twenty-seven meters away from the Waitemata harbour (I think that's the name).

In other coffee news I think I'm officially a regular at the Columbus Coffee shop I've been frequenting. Yesterday while I was working on some stuff one of the employees who I had talked once before came and sat at my table and asked exactly what it was I was doing with the church here. I think he's having difficulty figuring out how a person who looks like me is a pastor type. We had a nice conversation and I was able to learn a little about where he comes from and how he views life in Auckland. That same afternoon he introduced me two other people in the shop that were into that "church stuff." One was another regular who works with a ministry in Otara and the other was another employee of the shop who attends a different church in Otara. For those of you in St. Louis, Otara is roughly the New Zealand equivalent of East St. Louis. I'm interested to hear more from these guys. Anyway, more words and pictures soon.