Saturday I enjoyed a music retreat hosted at a local church led by New Zealand hymnwriter Collin Gibson. It was a great day to meet other church musicians, as well as gain insight into the creation of hymns particular to one's own congregation. Collin believes there are a vast number of hymns from the "old world" to use in congregational singing, but that it's important to also sing songs of the people in the congregation today. It seems to be very important right now in New Zealand to reach back to New Zealand's cultural and spiritual roots, especially Maori spirituality. It was interesting to learn, but some of Collin's theology wasn't based off Scripture, but instead based more off what he and his congregation want to hear. One example that I found disturbing was a song that thanked God for changing with us. Collin explained he wrote that on purpose, because he believes that God is a changing, mutable God! It was an eye opener to attend this conference and meet with so many other Christians in New Zealand, but to hear that some of the things they believe are so different from the Christianity I know! Please keep the churches of New Zealand in prayer.
That evening Ken and I enjoyed another date with Sam and Jennifer - we are getting to be quite good friends and we are so thankful that God brought them into our lives. It's great to have people that are not work-related to hang out with!
Sunday the adventure began - after church (where the congregation sang Happy Birthday to me!) Ken and I drove up to Woodville where we enjoyed my birthday cheesecake. It was there I found out our destination: Napier! It's a beautiful art deco city on the pacific with great vineyards...which means great wine!
Our little B&B...
...with ocean-front views!
This beach has black sand
We had dinner in the West Quay (pronounced Key) wharf district, and then ended the evening with a game of pool!
Monday morning our first stop was to the sheep factory to see how the sheep skins turn into awesome apparel and those cute New Zealand stuffed sheep gifts!
Brookfields, our first wine stop
Our second, and favorite winery
Our second, and favorite winery
Each vat holds enough wine for Ken and I to each have one bottle of wine a day for 65 years!
The third and final winery - Mission Estate. It is the oldest in NZ, and was started by monks who needed communion wine and a little extra for themselves!
Last stop: chocolate tasting!
Tuesday morning was beautiful, so we walked around Napier!
Sunken Gardens
Beautiful art deco fountain
Beautiful art deco fountain
Great view of the ocean and Cape Kidnappers
The old theatre, now in art deco style (after the great earthquack in the 1931, Napier decorated the entire city in this style)
A working sun dial!
Art deco meets Maori influence!
We drove to the top of Te Mata peak on our way back home to Palmy
Other exciting news...St. Luke's officially offered me a part time position as Director of Parish Music! I am really excited to begin this next week. It will be a 20 hour position and there are a lot of goals the leadership team has in mind! The next PLT meeting will be 100% dedicated to creating a vision for the future of St. Luke's worship. I will be asked to come and contribute and after it's all said and done they will produce a pamphlet for the congregation so that any changes that occur over the next two years will be through the leadership team, not the "new worship leader." Exciting times!
Ken has been loving his work, as well as finding it challenging. Time management is definitely a huge part of his day as he works on youth nights, creating a confirmation study program with pastor to start this October, setting up a youth event for the 125th anniversary celebration of St. Luke's coming up this October (where Lutheran's from both islands to celebrate over the weekend), getting ready to take 7 youth to the National Youth Camp in October, helping the youth sell baked goods at next weekend's garage sale (not to mention, help them bake those goodies!), lead children's sermons twice a month, and help Trinity revamp their children's organization and leadership. Keep him and the outreach director in prayer as they explore a possible international mission partnership. And this is just the start of some of his responsibilties!
Ken has also been finding time to "relax" and come to grips with manhood working with Lawrence Satherley from the church. Lawrence is a farmer who's taken him under his wing and on Wednesday mornings is training Ken to be a true kiwi farmer! So far Ken has helped birth a cow, catch a lamb, drive a tracktor, teach lambs and baby cows to suck on a tit, and all sorts of other crazy things! He even owns his own pair of redbands (type of boots all good farmers wear down here!) You'll have to ask him for stories, he's got a bunch!
Continue to keep us in your prayers that we "press on to make it [our time and work here] my own, beause Christ Jesus has made me His own" (Phil 3:12) and not give up. We have our good days and our bad days alike, as any other person in the world does. Sometimes we hit rough patches where all we want is to come back to the States. But we know that God has a mission for us here and that with Christ's strength we can press on "toward the goal" (vs.14) because with Him, all things are possible!
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