The winterless north

Hi again everyone

I've just come back from 6 days in Whangarei with Paul, Sharon, & Josh Buick and their church, Life City Church. A team of 5 of us went up and we had a blast. Unfortunately the weather wasn't quite the best of spring, but still the week was bliman good. We joined in on the church's activities for the week. On Tues night we met with their leaders & emerging leaders - just told them how we'd discovered God's call on our lives to be a missionary. It was flippin cool to see how much the leadership team enjoys being together. They put on a good feed for tea, which always adds to the enjoyment. Everybody was extremely welcoming & very hospitable all week; a real honour. We also got a great welcome from our hosts' dogs; this 1 is called Sox.

On Wed we did some walking around town as individuals, asking God to give us insight into the city. I hadn't done much of that sort of stuff before but it was really cool when the 5 of us got back together and compared notes: we all detected similar stuff. On Wed night we took the cell group and looked at some Biblical principles of sharing the news of Jesus Christ cross-culturally. Asked them to give us their ideas of various cultural groups in Whangarei and think about how they could present God to them. Did some other stuff too; probably tried to fit too much stuff into 1 evening but it's all good. It was cool that some of the stuff we'd felt on our prayer walk was what they said about Whangarei too! Reassuring eh.

Thurs night we led the prayer group. Paul led worship with Josh & another young guy Pomaka, and we just listened to what God was saying to them as a church in Whangarei. It was great to hear what God was saying Scripturally & prophetically!

On Sat we helped out a bit at their garage sale, with profits going towards a team of youth going on a short term trip to one of the islands next year. Did a sausage sizzle too. The hall they hired was chocka with stuff & it's surprising what went (1 man's junk is another man's treasure eh). But they raised $1100!! Flippin cool.

Sunday morning we preached & did communion and on Sunday night I preached and I think it went reasonably well. Really cool to see a good proportion of Maori & Pacific Islanders in their church; gotta love that cross-cultural stuff! One of the cool things that happened up there was the buzz I got seeing the church people having fun when they got together no matter what the occasion. And that was even more significant given the variety in age, race, & socio-economic situations. We're all 1 in Christ! Over the course of the week a fabulous connection was made between Life City Church & WEC - all credit to Paul & Sharon's openness & loving hospitality.

That's pretty much all the goss for now. I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing all you Chch people again soon. I'm driving home over Labour Weekend so not long now.

Em

Ice Cream Olympics, Goat Stew, & arts service

Hello everyone, here's a bit of a run down on what's been happening for me lately....

A few weeks ago GraceWay (Grey St Apo) had an arts service. The theme was on God's holiness & we had a few weeks to prepare anything we wanted around that. There were heaps of paintings, a dance, & a few poems. I wrote a poem, which I've done a bit of before but not on demand - more as a type of journalling. But it was fun & really cool to see everyone's creativity.

We had a week on the skill of storytelling, which is a great tool to use with oral societies. So I've got a few good stories up my sleeve now, & will probably keep adding to the collection. The guy who took it was really good. You know how most people just rave about 'their' topic - well he was cool, said it's just another skill to have at the ready & not the be-all and end-all. The other weekend about 10 of us went to the local Presbyterian Church and all told stories about how someone from the country we will go to became Christians. So it was lots of fun & unless they were just being polite they enjoyed it too.

Last week WEC had its annual conference, which was great. Unfortunately it's always at the same time as the Apostolic conference so that's a shame. It was really cool to be able to meet a whole lot of other NZ missionaries who have been or are still out with WEC. I'd heard most of their names so it was good to be able to meet them. I helped out with the children 1 morning. 4 of us ran Ice Cream Olympics for 20 kids aged 7-16. So a big age range but we figured everybody loves ice cream.

It was decided to give our tastebuds a sample of what they might expect once we all get to the country we're going to. Thus, we had a fancy dress pot luck. The only real different thing I tried was goat stew (common in Africa). Someone shot us a wild goat, which was roasted - very nice - then stewed - can get used to that too. I made a beef & rice dish with a peanut & tomato sauce. Wasn't too sure about peanuts & tomatoes together, but no worries. I need to get used to it cos I know that peanuts, tomatoes & onions are available pretty much all year round in Burkina Faso. It was nice, no probs. I just wasn't game to try the Turkish desserts tho - but I've since learned a very useful grace: "God I'll get it down; You keep it down."

And it's only 3 weeks til I move back to Chch & I'm sure that time will fly past. Tomorrow 5 of us are heading up to Paul & Sharon Buick's church in Whangarei for a ministry week. The others went to the Naki to do some kids' holiday programmes so yeah, glad I got to go north! Paul has basically handed us the church for the week so we'll lead their leaders' meeting, cell group, prayer night, youth night and Sunday services. Awesome eh! I'm stoked.

So I arrive home Labour Weekend and am really looking forward to it. It's been a wonderful time up here; God has been good & I've learned lots & really appreciate the time I've had at the college & orientating to WEC. Once back home, I'll work part time again at the medical centre I was at last year. But my real focus will be spending time with family, friends & Church. Bring it on!!

Thank you everyone so much for your support & love. I know I'm very fortunate to come from such a great church. See you soon :) Love from Em