February 19-25

This week there was a sense of hope that pervaded Ken and my thoughts and devotions. It began with an email from the president at Concordia University Irvine asking if we were still interested in possibly going to work in South Africa on the Themba project. The Themba project is a girls and boys school in a community of 600 people. One of their needs is for music teachers. Before responding, I decided to read various Scripture verses in regards to hope. Proverbs 13:12 says a hope deffered makes the heart sick; Romans 8:24 states that if we hope in that which is seen, it is no hope at all; Romans 5:1-5 explains that to rejoice in hope, one must go through suffering to grow endurance to grow character to grow hope. What all this means? We're not sure. However, we are open to however God moves and wherever this leads, we have hope in our Lord that His will will be done for our good.

Otherwise, the week was filled with many adventures! The sound system went awry, causing the music teams to revert to piano instead of electronic instruments. I worked on the system for two hours on Wednesday and finally called the man who set the system up in for help. Within a few minutes he had everything sorted out! Ugh. However, something good came out of all this - on March 15th there will be a four hour sound desk session led by Mark for all our sound operators at the church! Yes!

Ken took a survey last year on what topics the youth wanted to learn about in Bible studies, and right now they are studying peer pressure. He said that this past Friday was a really awesome time of fun and fellowship. The youth opened up during the study on peer presure and how Scripture address this issue, and he feels he has found a good medium between fun and study -so far everyone seems to be happy.

Ken is also involved with the outreach committee - for the past few months they have been praying for guidance as they work with the Lutheran Church of Australia to find a church somewhere in the world to partner with. This past week they solidified their vision statement: that this partnership be "sustainable and safe" for the Manwatu Parish. That means the congregation they find to partner with needs to be one that can last for several years, and be in a safe location so we can send over youth and volunteers to work hands-on with the church. A possible location in Indonesia has opened up. It was neat to see God working - at their last meeting the idea of Indonesia was brought up. Then Ken was contacted by the LCA - they have a church in Indonesia that needs partnership, but three churches in Australia who were interested just backed out! This leaves the Manawatu a prime canidate for the partnership. We will keep you posted as to how this develops.

The Olive Tree is getting ready for print again. This issue is called "Branching Out" and covers various outreach opportunities going on around the LCNZ. It won't be quite as long as the last issue (16 pages instead of 20) but the articles were all inspiring to read. Although the LCNZ may be small, God is moving in big ways with the generosity and creativity of the church. One of my favorite articles was about a BMX park that the church opened up in Upper Moutere - it's a great way to reach out to the community, offering a new dirt park for the youth, while being right next to the Lutheran church, allowing youth minister Mark Seek to easily work with the youth in that area.

Finally, Ken and I are learning what it means to be in leadership when there is no leader. The Manawatu is still searching for a pastor, and meanwhile the lack of leadership is beginning to take its toll. Communication is the biggest issue right now since there are 10+ leaders, but no "leader of leaders" to gather up all the loose ends. It's actually working out for the good - it has forced the PLT to take a closer look at the worship vision for St. Luke's, it has forced me to move faster in organizing the parish-wide monthly worship team meetings, and it has forced Ken to work closer with his youth and childrens ministry teams. We smile when we read Romans 5:1-5 knowing that the suffring that St. Luke's has gone through in the loss of Pastor Greg has produced endurance as we wait for a new pastor, which has produced character as we all learn more about being leaders, which has produced hope...hope as we look to future of stronger leadership and communiaction here in the Manawatu.