February 26-March 3

"Worship in the Manawatu connects its members to “God’s service,” in the voice of its people, while carrying out the great commission by creating a welcoming and relaxed environment centered on Word and Sacrament." That is a summerization of the worship vision statement that the PLT and I created this past Tuesday evening! What an exciting night of communication, idea swapping, and vision-ering! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers - now we wait until the 11th when the music teams of St. Luke's gather for the first monthly music ministry meeting where we will discuss this statement and what it means, and how it applies to each team. Also, next Sunday the 9th, the congregation will be submitting their top 5 hymns and songs of which the music ministry team meeting will review. We are hoping to have a base of 25 songs from which all music teams will choose 4 for their designated Sunday (therefore, the congregation will know 4 of the 6 songs - right now each team sings whatever they want, and often the congregation doesn't know the songs.) Exciting times!



Prof Ken Chitwood is also enjoying the exciting times -he has now taught his first BCNZ class and really enjoyed it! He has about 11 students, most of which are in their 20s. He looks forward to working with the students, and even getting to know some of them outside academia (especially the youth worker in his class who works a church down the road from St. Luke's!)



This weekend we went down to St.Paul's Lutheran church in Wellington for a conference on the book of Acts given by Stephen Haar. It was amazing! About 30 people came from around the North Island. And from our church we had about 12, one of whom is a youth member, Sam! He and Ken are holding ourlunch box in the picture below. It was great to have a high schooler interested in learning more about the book of Acts - he seemed to really enjoy the day, his favorite statement from Stephen Haar being, "Don't vomit your faith" meaning, don't be one of those Christians who just throws their faith onto someone, sighs with relief and walks away feeling good about "sharing their faith." Our faith is a lifestyle that shows in how we act as a community of disciples, not a club with members. But anyway, we stayed the evening there with a very nice family who also happen to be quite the musicians - we spent a good hour singing praise songs together in their living room! It was a very special experience and made me realize that God really IS present when two or more people gather together in His name!


Monday we relaxed and took Pepper to the dog store for a winter coat. Yes, unfortunately the weather is beginning to cool down, but look at how cute our little girl looks!


She's a turbo's fan with her green and white sweater!

Other than that, we've just been busy with church work and enjoying the last few summer evenings (and Pepper's been enjoying her bone we brought her back from the states)...Blessings!