March 31-April 4

This week was refreshing! We left on Monday morning to go to Havelock North for the Church Workers Conference. It was great to be with about 12 other church workers and pastors from both islands, sharing our ups and downs, learning more about New Zealand culture, and digging into the Word. Ken was asked to give a presentation, so he wrote a paper entitled “What’s a Lutheran to do with the Emerging Church?” and gave an 1.5 hour long presentation/discussion on it. We both had the opportunity to lead everyone in devotion, and were asked to lead music for other’s devotions as well. But it wasn’t all work and no play: we enjoyed a time at the local pub together as well as wine tasting at some of Hawke’s Bay vineyards. But the best part of it was learning more about the Kiwi culture – one of the pastors shared a book review of a book entitled The Great New Zealand Argument. It was written by New Zealanders looking at why Kiwi’s are the way they are. It gave Ken and I a lot of insight about this culture. You see, sometimes we get so discouraged here because we do everything we’re asked to do by the congregation, yet we’re always being criticized. We decided it just must be that people here are overly negative. However, this book explained the “tall poppy syndrome” – New Zealand is a relatively new culture (approx 200 years old Pakeha history) and the people don’t really have a strong grasp of who they are. Therefore, they rest in the fact that they are all the same and anyone who tries to be anything different is looked down upon because they are being “uppity.” Mediocrity is encouraged and people strive to be good, not their best. This can be seen in the people here as more and more intellectuals are leaving New Zealand for countries that appreciate them (like Australia, Britain, and America.) Also, New Zealanders have a jaded opinion of Australians and Americans, believing them to have this attitude “we’re better than you.” Therefore, even as Ken and I work at doing things we’ve been asked BY New Zealander’s to do, they view what we do as if we think we’re better than them and therefore criticize what we do. It’s a nasty circle, but at least we better understand it.

The crew at the local pub

The grapes at a winery

Ken playing rugby with the pastors

We got back from the conference on Thursday in time to pick up our friend Aaron – he is exploring New Zealand for 7 weeks and stopped over in Palmy to visit us for the weekend. It was good to catch up with an old Concordia friend and to give him a place to rest.

Friday night Ken began his newest Bible study series with the youth: Rooted New Testament. This study will be easier than other studies as it is a fill in the blank study sheet, but it’s what the other youth leader feels the youth want. The first study went pretty well and Ken thought the kids seemed to enjoy it.
Aaron, Jen, Sarah and myself picked up Ken after youth to take Aaron out on the town – we hit up some Irish pubs and enjoyed live Celtic music! We ended the night back at the house where Aaron taught us a fun Israeli card game he learned from one of the hut caretakers in the Tongariro Crossing called “Yaniv.” If you come over, we’ll teach you how to play – it’s a blast!

Saturday Ken had a meeting with some of the parents and teachers of the children’s Sunday school. For the past month, they decided to begin Sunday School before church and have the children join the service about 15 minutes into the service at the children’s talk time. However, many parents did not like having the children in the service during the sermon, so they scheduled a meeting to discuss ways to arrange the Sunday School around the service so that it is structured, yet keeps the kids busy during the sermon.

After that meeting, we headed down to Wellington with Aaron to go to a Super 14 Rugby game: Wellington Hurricanes vs South Africa’s Sharks. We sat two rows from the field and could almost see the sweat on the players faces!! Or maybe it was rain…because it definitely drizzled most of the game and we were in uncovered seats. But the game itself was a blast – we ended up drawing with the Sharks, but that’s pretty good seeing that the Sharks are undefeated.

It was another rainy day in Wellington

Took him to Mac's

At the game

See how close we are??

Other news: after the CWC as I lamented that I felt no one appreciates me as the church musician, I got an amazing email from one of the music teams thanking me for the hard work and great services that we’ve had! Then I got a gift card from another member for the Christian bookstore to show appreciation for my work, as well as a donation of music chimes for the parish! Wow, God is so awesome – how He moves in His people to uplift His children right when they need it.

Ken has been really really busy with work. Between the BCNZ (planning and preparing for lectures and grading papers), preparing youth night events, getting the Adult Education program running for May, and working on revamping the Sunday School, time is filled! He also applied for a grant to fund his airfare to Indonesia with the mission outreach program – and it looks like it is going through! So in the next few weeks he’ll be booking his tickets. What an exciting opportunity – he also is amazed at how God’s fingers are so involved in this program: it turns out Pastor Rob was involved with the Batak people in Indonesia and has a video about them that the team will watch and possibly share with the congregation; President Preus from CUI told Ken that he’s also worked with and met the same point person Ken will be meeting in Indonesia! And so many other little things that appear to be “coincidence” but we see as God’s fingers working to bring things together for His glory. Another wow! Thank God for the encouraging ways He’s moved in our lives this week. He is so good!