The countdown has begun!

Hi everybody
I've just had 10 days in the North Island, & it has to be said that it was quite a bit cooler than I'd expected. I was in Kaikohe on Sunday morning and they had a frost!! So much for the winterless north! Apparently frosts are rare up there but even so, it was a pretty decent one.
It was excellent being able to catch up with people! I had 4 nights at Owen & Raewyn's, & the highlight would have to be seeing how good Raewyn looked having finished all her chemo & radiation. She's doing pretty well so that's bliman great. However, I didn't enjoy the rugby! It was fabulous to see everyone in their church again, & to be able to meet a bunch of the newcomers since my last visit. I especially enjoyed their Welsh friends' accent!! Lovn it.
Then it was down to Hamilton for 3 nights, where I caught up with lots of people from WEC & Eastwest College (where I studied last yr). I also saw a few people from the church I went to, as well as my Somalian friends. They came to NZ last April as refugees & I was 1 of the people helping them to settle in. They are all doing so well, they've learned stacks of English, all the kids have friends at school, and most of them play netball or soccer. It was so cool to see how far they've come along in the 8 months since I last saw them! I was also able to spend some time with Sheridyn, Jan, Luke & Jay and Trevor & Margaret. That was great, & they're all doing well! There's nothing quite like catching up with old friends eh.
When I visited friends from my old church, I pulled up and couldn't get the key out of the ignition of my friend's car. I pushed the release button & was pulling the key with all my might, but to no avail. Finally I realised it was cos I'd left it in drive, d'oh! Then when I went to leave Sheridyn & Jan's place, it took me a while to unlock the door. I had to turn the key this way & that, until it eventually let me in. Then I started it but it stalled straight away (it was a cold night). Then I did get it started but couldn't get it into gear.... til Sheridyn told me you have to put your foot on the brake; right. Makes sense to me (not). Then I pulled out of their drive and turned left.... it conked out again. How embarrassing! Finally I got going again and then it was all good!
Then my busyness continued when I headed north to Whangarei to see the Buicks for the weekend. They are doing so great! It's always fabulous to see them, & I was able to spend some time with a couple from their church who I got to know last year. Nick & Karen Klinkenberg were also up for the weekend, so I'm sure you can imagine that a lot of it was spent laughing. It was cool to get to know them too.
Paul & Sharon have just started share milking again, although the cows are dry just now. If you want to hear about the dramas they had with the farmhouse, give them a ring & they'll fill you in. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you too! I also had a bit of a catch up with Amy, Nick, & Josh too, which was great. That family is just amazing - they are so passionate for God & church, and they have all work so hard; absolutely inspirational.
And now I'm back in Chch, and to be fair to the North Islanders, I have to admit it's pretty bleak weather here too. I only have 5 weeks left at work! I'm going to have a month off before I leave to have a holiday and be able to see everyone I want to, & do everything I have to. I really don't want to get to France & be tired or stressed out.
Recently I asked John & Katherine Bennett to be my church representatives. They are very close family friends, & Katherine & mum met when they were 17. Our families used to go camping together over the Christmas holidays, which was always fabulous. Mum & Katherine used to like to stop at EVERY pottery place.... boring! Over the years John & Katherine have shown themselves to be loving, loyal, and wonderful friends. John has been on the Wycliffe board for many years (like, over 30). They are also great hosts, & often have missionaries, or anybody else, to stay in their home. Their role as my reps is basically to be a contact point for people back here, and give info about me to those interested, as well as give me info about what's happening back here. For those of you who have expressed to me an interest in supporting me, you can either contact them in person, or at jkbennett@clear.net.nz. Alternatively you can always see, email, or text me, or contact WEC at admin@wecnz.org. Once I'm away, I'll be updating my blog about every month, as well as using Facebook & Skype. I so appreciate everybody's prayers, this is making a huge difference & is really encouraging! You are and will be a huge, although often unseen part, of what I do. Thank you so much.
Current prayer & praise points:
Thanks God: a wonderful & safe trip to the NI
my job; it's going great & I really enjoy it.
Please God: for my last month at work - I'd like to finish well & be a great ambassador for Jesus
Quality time with my family and friends!
That's it from me for now. I need to get my skates on so I get to work on time!!

biking, visiting, relaxing...

Like everyone else, I think this year's going quickly. Maybe that's just because Chch has had some warm days more akin to summer than autumn; maybe it's because Dad & I have recently decided to bike to the bach so we've been out enjoying that warm weather more. But the date of the trip is approaching more rapidly than our fitness, so yea, it'll be interesting if nothing else. The trip is 260km, so we do have our work cut out for us. I successfully rode up the port hills to the kiwi recently, the first time in 2 or 3 years, so I suppose that's a good start. (The kiwi is 320m high). Porter's Pass is just over 900m high....

Apart from that, it was great to catch up with my niece & nephew, Philippa & Josh, over Easter. They're growing up fast, and both doing well at school. They have lots of outside interests - mainly horses (4 Philippa) and motorbikes (for Josh). Lots of fun!

I had my 1st fundraising event last month, & was pretty happy with how that went. I had lots of help from people who brought along home baking for supper, yum yum. I showed a DVD set in Burkina Faso, that told the story of 1 woman who decided that female circumcision should stop. It was pretty full on, but gave a pretty good insight into the culture and their way of life.

Last week 2 of my nursing friends, Maureen & Suzy, finally got to go to our bach together for a few nights. It took a bit of planning due to our different rosters, but was way worth it! We had lots of fun and did a whole lot of not much. Mainly playing board games, reading, talking, resting, and planning our next trip! It was good R&R and even good weather! Yes, it's true, the coast does get sunshine.... but don't tell anyone cos then everyone will want to go!

Apart from that, I've been getting a good amount of work. We even had a couple of people in who had symptoms of the swine flu, plus had recently travelled to Mexico. That made us get our act together with infection control! All good news though, both people turned out to be negative - yay. I've also been plodding away on things for my departure. I have booked my tickets, and leave Chch for France on Aug 27th! Plus I successfully applied for my British passport (dad was born in England), so that makes everything seem a lot closer!! And I've only had 1 headache (that was probably due to biking too far too fast on a hot day & not drinking enough. Lesson learned.) So I'm rapt that the headaches are gone for good!

That's all I have to say about that.

What's been going on!

Lots of great things have been happening lately & here's the goss...

A while ago Dad & I went tramping on the West Coast. The track we did part of is called the Croesus, & it goes from just out of Blackball (near our bach) all the way through to Barrytown (just south of Punakaiki). We walked into the hut on the 1st day, about 6 hours worth, and slept VERY WELL that night! Then the next day we continued on a bit, then climbed Mount Lyall (it's massive!!!!) But we felt so good instead of just going back to the hut we continued all the way back that we'd tramped the day before. I was planning to attach some photos but for some weird technological reason, I'm unable to. So you'll just have to take my word for it - the views were AMAZING!!

The coolest thing that's happened in the past while is that I haven't had a migraine in over a month!! The new pastor at church, Terry, prayed for me 1 Sunday at church and ever since then!! Sweet as. It's been amazing, it's such a great feeling being free of pain - yay!! So now I can enjoy listening to LOUD! music whenever I want... all good!

Work is going really well. At first it looked like I wasn't going to have any the week before last, but I ended up picking up 3 days, so it always works out that I get enough - stoked! And the people I work with are really nice. We're very multi-cultural at the moment: an Irish nurse, an Australian Dr, an American Dr, a Sri Lankan-English Dr, an English Dr, and then the rest of us are kiwis. Plenty of fun when terminology is different, or even someone's accent! The American Dr asked a nurse for a 4x4 - and what he meant wasn't a piece of wood, or a car, but a piece of gauze, cos in the US they're 4" x 4". So yea, we laugh at each other's weird English.

The rest of my family is well. Dad's doing great, his work went through a quiet patch but it's picked up again now. He's getting into bike riding & has also been tramping on the hills so that's cool. He even managed to get his cholesterol down - so impressive! My brother's family is good - excitedly waiting to get a puppy. My other neice turns 11 this weekend, & I plan to go down to see them in Waimate over Easter.

Church is going really well. Our new pastor & his family are settling in just fine, & the church is in good heart. I'm leading a cell group and that's cool; it's been a while since I did that. I also do a bit of visiting for church and I'm enjoying that.

It's not long now til I go to France - sometime in August. My fundraising efforts kick off on the 23rd of April - I'm going to show a DVD set in Burkina Faso of all places! It'll be on the big screen at church and we'll put on supper, so that should be a lot of fun. I'm in the process of applying for my British passport (Dad's British), as my NZ one expires in November anyway. So I'll keep you posted on that - looks like a lot of paperwork to do!

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

The skinny on what I've been up too

It wouldn't surprise me if you were wondering how the heck it could take WEC 12 weeks to orientate their candidates! It does - and now I know a few reasons why....

1. Our group of 11 candidates + 2 directors (not all are in this photo) is full of extroverts. ie, we have a lot of fun, & can take a very long time coming back from our coffee breaks.

2. There is a lot to learn about WEC! The mission was established nearly 100 years ago, and looking at some of its history helps us to understand why things are done the way they're done. It's about me getting to know WEC, & them getting to know me. What do they mean by the core values of faith, sacrifice, holiness, & fellowship?? (Now I realise that long coffee breaks don't pass for developing fellowship. But could it pass for pastoral care of my fellow candidate??)
3. WEC is committed to doing all they possibly can to ensure that their attrition rate is low.

So apart from that, I'm still involved in helping out the 7-10 year olds on a Sunday morning. That's a lot of fun whether we have 2 or 15 children who turn up. (The picture on the left is part of a mural they've made about Gladys Awylward, a British missionary to China a long time ago.)

I'm still enjoying seeing my Somalian friends, and we catch up most weeks. Unfortunately I can't take any photos of them - I think that Muslims believe that if their photo was taken their soul would be stolen. Anyway - I'm always impressed by how much English they've learned since we last caught up. They often ask me to read a list of words to them, which they repeat - even the 2 year old had a go yesterday! The 7 year old girl has improved her reading even in the past week! Plus they have Arabic lessons and speak in their mother tongue at home - tri-lingual from knee-high to a grasshopper.

So that's much what's been occupying my time lately. This week I'm hoping to meet up with Eileen Summerville, WEC's field leader in Burkina Faso, who's from 1 of the Auckland ACTS churches. I've got a bunch of questions for her - including dress code, & what's the accomodation like in Banfora (the city I'm going to).

I'll keep you posted!

The goss on graduating

I graduated a couple of weeks ago with 5 others. The best thing was - there were no boring speeches from the staff!
Our theme was being on a journey - hence the road signs.

Since then I've enjoyed a couple of weeks off. This time has mostly consisted of reading, sleeping, talking, & other such activities common to slackers. I did get to see Dad at Auckland airport on his way home from Fiji - so that was a bonus.

On Monday I start a course on linguistics - think it's about how to learn a language from scratch, in a place where nobody speaks English. I've heard it's a full on course but worth the stress.

Then in early Aug the 12 week WEC orientation course starts. The best news is that someone's offered to cater for us - gotta make sure we're well nourished!