August 5-12

This week was soooo awesome! We found someone to watch Pepper (actually it worked out perfect - a young adult who still lives at home in our congregation who liked the idea of having her own place for a few days with a dog) and packed out bags up late Wednesday. Thursday morning we got on the road by 10am and headed the long route up to Auckland. Our first stop was in Sansen for the BEST coffee this side of the equator. We made quite a few more stops for pictures (see below) - it was great weather with sunshine, although Mt. Taranaki hid itself in clouds. After going through New Plymouth on the west coast we drove up to White Cliffs Brewery where we stopped for some delicious brew at the smallest brewhouse in NZ. The owners were South African, so that was neat to learn a bit more about where we're off to next! We had dinner in Hamilton at a place called Coyote which was a Tex-Mex fusion restaurant. It was really yummy and we enjoyed seeing kokopelli's and Maori designs intermingled on the menu! Talk about multicultural! We got to Auckland at about 8pm, after ten wonderful hours enjoying the countryside. We were both very excited for Faith Inkubators to begin Friday so we hit the sack early.


Talk about All Blacks Supporters!



West coast beauty


Fuji has a timer!



We really enjoyed the Mountain Lager



Dinner in Hamilton - can you see the Kokapelli and the Maori designs?


Friday morning we picked up Kerri from the airport and met up with the other four members from our church that were attending the conference. We were pleasantly surprised to see eight other Lutheran pastors/leaders from around the country (including the President) - great support! The conference itself was amazing - hard to describe in a blog spot, but to sum it up nicely: Sunday school was created for those outside of the church who had no parents to teach them about the faith. However, today we've enabled the parents to drop off their children and have no say in their faith development, expecting the youth workers and pastors to bring up their children in the faith with 20 minutes a week. Ridiculous! Faith Inkubators is focused on getting pastors and youth workers to work together with parents to encourage faith development in the home, which is part of a parent's responsibility. We learned sooooo much and I think the Manawatu left with quite a vision for youth ministry in the parish. I know Ken and I are very keen on this method of faith development and will incorporate it into whatever church we end up working full time at (or at least incorporating it into our own family).

One of the premises of Faith Ink is the Faith 5 that you do each night with your family


Rich BLANK teaching us



Friday night we ended it by going ice skating at the rink in Auckland (there isn't one in Palmy). It was super fun, although we were the oldest people there. I guess Friday nights at the rink is for all the junior high students and there was a live DJ with stobe lights and fog. Crazy, but fun.

Sky Tower


Winners!

Saturday finished the conference and then Kerri, Ken and myself went to Sky City (NZ Las Vegas) to have a little fun - we all walked away richer than we were walking in! Sunday we dropped Kerri off at the airport and began our way to Whakapapa, the ski village at Mt. Ruhapehu! The drive down was eventful - we saw an elephant! In the countryside of New Zealand! WHAT??!! On closer look, it belonged to a circus, but still, it was pretty crazy!

A New Zealand elephant?!



The Chateau blew our minds - we had one of the nicest rooms, with heated floors in the bathroom and a perfect view of the mountain! We took a nice walk to see some waterfalls while it was spritzing with snow...so romantic! It was a perfect start to celebrating our first year anniversary (a bit late, but we planned it that way because we wanted to ski, but the season isn't good until August).

The Chateau with Ruhapehu behind it



It's snowing!




The waterfalls we took a walk in the snow to see




Monday we got up nice and early to hit the slopes - sooooo much fun! We picked up skiing pretty quick and were on blue slopes before you knew it! That night we had a wonderful three course dinner at the hotel (part of the room package) and enjoyed a bottle of champagne and chocolates back in the room. It was picture perfect.







Tuesday we began the trek home, getting back in the early afternoon. It was back to work after we said hello to the Pepper. What a wonderful week - it was very refreshing and a much needed positive uplifting time of learning and playing!

July 29-August 4

This week was a great week! Filled with the Spirit, productivity, and love! Where to begin?
Tuesday through Thursday we were at church workers conference in Otaki. It was a great conference - in house training from Delta Ministries on team building and leadership. That means there were lots of fun leadership "games" and also some great debriefing sessions! It was awesome to have Shannon teaching us throughout the day, while his partner Michael was downstairs praying for us and our ministries in New Zealand.
I was excited to learn more about my leadership style: pioneering. That means I like setting a vision and working towards it, however, often I get "bored" with implementing it, so instead move on to a new challenge. My other two high scores were management and strategic planning. Ken found out he was also those three, but in a different order! No wonder we work so well together! :)
It was also a great week for the pastors to be lifted up in prayer and re-energize. During the conference, it really dawned on Ken and I how much we love New Zealand and the people who are working in the Lutheran Church. The LCNZ has been under such attack lately...we realized that it seems that there is not a single parish that hasn't been filled with pain - and lots of it! And being such a small body doesn't help the pain, but instead makes you feel isolated from the rest of the world. However, we believe that God has different plans in store for the LCNZ! Please keep the pastors and lay workers of the LCNZ in your prayers - they need support, energy, hope and protection from the negativity and obstacles that are constantly hitting them.

The lake outside the lodge (pictured above)

The view from our room

Monday night's sunset

Another beautiful area on the grounds

Church workers isn't all work...bowls with the LCNZ President Rob!


Pastor/President Rob


Saving "Sandy" one of the team-work "games"

Pastor Max (our interim for the Manawatu)

Ken's team had 30 minutes to make some sort of art work, and made this using the flax bush, weaving it in the paper, representing New Zealand, and the eucalyptus flower, representing Australia, both connected through Christ, the cross.


Training sessions with Shannon (one of the Delta Ministries team leaders)



On Wednesday Ken had to drive back to Palmy to teach his BCNZ course - however the drive back to Otaki was horrific! A huge storm was coming across the island, with hurricane force winds! He ended up parking on the side of the highway behind a jack-knifed truck for safety (especially seeing as how a large tree fell down in the road in front of where he was driving!!) He made it back to the conference safely (phew). But at 3pm that day we lost power and it never came back on. So we enjoyed cooking our lasagna on the barbie and having dinner by candle light!


We got back home Thursday afternoon and went back in to the office to catch up on some work after unpacking and picking up Pepper. She overstayed her welcome at Lois and Roy's - she seemed to get into a tuff with the cat, so they asked if we wouldn't drop her there anymore! Pepper pepper...

Friday morning Ken had a dentist appointment for cavities...luckily it was a quick, fairly painless (well, not financially! haha) procedure. Youth went really well that evening. He got to connect with the student who wanted a Bible since his dad was late to pick him up. However, please continue to keep a certain student in your prayers as she is so negative, has no desire to be at youth, and is quite disruptive in Bible studies.

Saturday Ken and I made it another Starbucks-day, enjoying a cup of coffee while reading. I was especially caught by 1 Chronicles 29:18, my new prayer, "O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thought sin the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you." I really felt that after the CWC and the burden Ken and I felt for the ministry of the Lutheran church in NZ, this verse spoke right into that!
That night Judi and Lawrence invited us over to watch the All Blacks play the Wallabies, and Anna (their daughter) and her boyfriend Robbie came over too. It was a really good game (we creamed those Aussies)!


Sunday Ken and I were both super busy - I helped the youth as they led worship (they did a wonderful job too!), Ken had a confirmation event that afternoon (the youth went to the Islamic center to compare our faith to theirs since they just finished the Apostles Creed, the basic tenants of the Christian faith) and that afternoon we spent in the office getting things done for this week since we leave on Thursday and won't be back until next Tuesday (we are going to Faith Incubators in Auckland and then spending the weekend skiing on the volcanic Mount Ruhapehu). However, it was awesome that although we did so much work on the "Lord's day," He made Himself the forefront of everything we did, thought, worked on, talked about...it was really special! We both went to bed Sunday night feeling as though we had just spent the entire day worshiping the Lord - and it was a good thing!


Monday morning I went to get my hair cut! I felt I was beginning to look like a hippie, so went to the hairdressing college to get the chop! I really like it and am glad I did it. We took Pepper to the park in the afternoon and got caught in some "sun showers" again! I don't like this new habit of getting soaked taking the dog for a walk! That evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at the Grand with Kate and Damien. They are leaving next week for Australia for a few months before heading over to England to work for the next few years! We will really miss them, but understand their "travel lust" :)

The hippie



Viola!


So, it was an eventful, joy filled week! We feel so invigorated to ministry here in Aeotearoa for these next six months.

July 22-28

Ken started his course this week and really enjoyed his first day. He has one returning student, and the others are all new. There are 9 students in this course, which is less than his last one. Although this course is an "upper division" course, while his last one wasn't. He feels like this course will be more challenging to him to teach. The original course was an online course, so the teacher was able to pack more in than he can fit into an 1.5 hour live session. But he's up for the challenge!

Wednesday our car broke down AGAIN! It's been breaking down every Wednesday fortnightly...unfortunately, our mechanic doesn't know what's the problem so returned it to us saying next time it breaks down he'll hopefully know what to do! We're planning for that breakdown to be on August 6 (a fortnight from now!) haha...hope not!

Thursday we had lunch with the old administrator, Judith. She is moving to England soon and wanted to catch up with us before she leaves. When she returns, we will be back in the states. Ken had his children's ministry meeting that evening - that team is such a dynamic group! Ken feels like that will be the best thing he leaves behind: a group of dedicated children's minsters who are interested in growing, learning, have a kind heart, and a desire to serve. Getting them together monthly for these communication meetings lead to vibrant growth. Most of the leaders are attending Faith Incubators next week in Auckland as well, which is awesome!

Friday morning was the fortnightly prayer morning for the church. I haven’t been able to make it in the past, so it was nice to be back in prayer for an hour with the Lord and other leaders in the church, praying for things on our hearts, but also for whatever the Spirit directed us to pray about.

Friday night youth went really great - the students were digging into why we read the Bible, it's validity, etc. and one student mentioned he doesn't have a Bible and would like one. Another student asked if Ken would take time during the week to dig deeper into it together! Wow, it is soooo cool to see God move in these kids hearts like that! The youth also decided on a t-shirt design for the youth group, so Ken will be looking into getting the shirts made so the Manawatu have a shirt to sport for their youth.

We both found this week to be a whirlwind as we prepare to leave next week for church workers conference. So we spent Saturday at Starbucks doing quite a bit of extra work (while still enjoying a nice cup of coffee!)

Sunday our team led and we introduced a new song I wrote (Facedown) during communion and it was a great success! Everyone enjoyed hearing and asked who it was by – they would like to learn it as a congregation and another team has volunteered to learn it as well! This is so exciting!

Ken had a confirmation meeting in the afternoon on Sunday as well – please continue to keep the students in your prayers. Some of the students are really blooming in their faith development and desire to learn more, so Ken will be working with the one-on-one during the coming months to do deeper Bible digging. However, there is one student in particular who does not put forth any time or work into confirmation. Ken doesn't want anyone to be forced into the process, since this is a choice that each student should make for themselves. If it's not a priority right now, then maybe they should consider waiting a few more years. However, please keep this one student in your prayers that their disruptive and negative attitude and behaviour would be challenged by the Spirit.

We also decided to buy a new camera - there are huge winter sales going on right now, so we thought we'd use our Christmas funds now for ourselves to get "Fuji" (yes, we've named our new camera!) It's an amazing little thing!

Meet Fuji

A close up of Ken's jeans!

Fuji's text capabilities

Pep in the office with us

Sunday evening we finally decided to cook Ken's duck that he shot and cleaned a few months ago! The duck itself was amazing and Ken was super excited to be able to say he killed, cleaned, and cooked our food! Fuji was able to capture some great shots to!

Ken cooking his duck

Fugi even captures the steam!

Our nice candle-lit duck dinner

Pepper in her new sweater, wishing she could have some duck too (doesn't she have bad seating posture?!)

Monday we packed up, dropped Pepper off at Lois and Roy's home, dropped off a song I wrote about the Manawatu into a competition to win a $1500 keyboard (if I win it, I'd like to bring it to South Africa with me to teach the children piano and leave it there with them), and picked up Cheryl from the airport to head down to Otaki for the church workers conference. Delta Ministries will be training us this week on leadership and team building -should be a great week to catch up with other LCNZ workers, as well as grow more as church leaders through the training.

A storm front moving in near Opiki on our way to Otaki

July 15-21

It's been raining a lot lately!

It was nice to have a "normal" week after the holiday programs of last week! Ken got busy preparing for his next course that he's teaching at the BCNZ - Interpretive method B covering kin formation, exegesis, and historical perspective from early church fathers to modern. It also looks at the steps from Biblical theology to systematic theology! phew! He has his hands full. It begins the 23rd, so he's using this week to get ahead.

Wednesday was another all music team meeting. This time I had representatives from each team (actually multiple people from each team) attending, so that was a blessing! We reported on the NOISE conference from June, discussed the services from the past month, and began a Bible study on worship which focused on Psalm 63 (worshiping God even when we don't "feel" like it. In this Psalm, David worships God as his sons are chasing after him to kill him! When we don't feel like the atmosphere in church is conducive to worship, we need to remember this Psalm for a little perspective!)

Thursday night was the PLT and Directors meeting. We missed last months (we were at the debate over God's existence) so it was great to get caught up with the other directors and ministries at the church. Please continue to keep the Manawatu parish in prayer as we are seeking another pastor to call...we're hoping that by September we will issue the call.

Friday night we had all the youth over for a movie marathon of Lord of the Rings! It's the last weekend of school holidays for the kids, so they were pumped to use it to stay up 11 hours watching the extended version! They came to our house, so I was able to sneak into our bedroom to get some zzzzs around 1am. :)

Saturday we went to Trinity to record some more songs - one of the youth came with us to record his bass in them. It was really fun. My goal is by the time we're leave in February, to have a cd of 10-15 songs copyright that I can give to some producers in the states! I'm viewing myself now as part time DPM, part time songwriter.

Sunday evening about 12 people came to the movie Bible study of the month - Hancock. It turned out to be an awesome study! The movie itself was about a superhero who wasn't the "norm" superhero (actually he was an alcoholic!) and how one man took an interest in him to help him become the superhero LA needed. After tea, Ken discussed with us the issue of God's calling, vocation, and redemption. Redemption was probably the biggest theme, since Hancock was seen as a superhero that was beyond helping. However, someone took the initiative to help him, and in the end Hancock was able to fulfill his vocation. Sound familiar? God takes us, people who are helplessly beyond helping, and gives us his Son to save us, and now we can live out our calling in Christ!

Monday it was sunny, so we decided to go on a short tramp! Although once in the bush, the clouds gathered round...but it was still a beautiful walk and great way to end our busy week.

The start of the tramp

Winer leaves

A beautiful gurgling stream full after all the rains we've been having

Pep the super hiking dog!

Trying to find the best way to cross the stream without getting wet (the water was icy cold)

An old magazine we found!

Beautiful...

Of course, stopped in Woodville for some cheesecake!

We miss our family back home and send all our love to you!

July 8-14

Well, holiday programs ran this week! Ken ended up not going to Turbo Time on Tuesday with me (not enough room in the cars, and so the leaders up there said he didnt need to come - not exactly a stroke for the ego!) So I helped for the day and made sure the cd we made was working for them for wed and thurs.

Wednesday morning started out weird - the car wouldn't start again! This time it wasn't the battery, but some other connecting part that needed to be fixed. So Ken got a ride out to Feilding with Pastor Rob for Blast. He led songtime alone since I had a music meeting for the conference in October I'm co-planning. The meeting was awesome - it was at Guy Jansen's home and Pauline, Mark W and myself met with him to get the logistics of the conference on paper. It's not until late October, but we still have a lot of publicizing to do. It feels great to have the whole schedule down though. The title for the conference will be Segue: The Rhythm of Worship. Guy Jansen will be speaking on why we worship, and there will be various break-out sessions on worship leading, bands, choral readings, organ techniques, etc. It is going to be so great, especially for the Lutherans of New Zealand, most of whom are leading their congregations (since we are so short on pastors) but have no formal training. This will be a great weekend to learn more about worship, planning and leading in services. Please keep this in your prayers that the Lutheran lay leaders in NZ churches will come to this conference!


Thurs and Friday Ken and I both led music at Blast as well as helped with crafts and storytime. Friday we had 17 kids show up! Wow, what an awesome blessing! It was a lot of fun, although Ken caught a cold and was feeling a bit under the weather again!


Friday night we had a "fun nite" for the youth, playing mini golf from 6-8pm. Mini golf down here is way different than in the states...imagine a mini golf range and that's the mini golf of NZ! Reminded me more of a pool and outdoor store than a game, but we had a great time, so that's all that matters, right? It was neat to see some of the youth from Feilding come out to join us as well!



My toe was itching really bad




The youth playing mini golf








Saturday we had a fun day relaxing with the dog - took her to her favorite store (the pet store) for some treats and a nice long walk at the park where we got soaked! The rains came fast and unexpectedly!


When we were walking around town, we found this new sign: no hats, hoods, helmets, sunglasses...This is starting to get ridiculous! Ken had to take off his hoodie to get inside!



Sunday night was the Trinity pm service - we geared it around Blast and had lots of songs and readings from the holiday program. Although, I wrote a horrible blooper...for Away in the Manger I typed..."bless all the dead children in thy tender care"!!! During practice we laughed so hard. Luckly the team was able to fix the bulletins with little stickers going over the "d" and writing in an "r" - phew!


By Sunday night Ken was finally feeling 100% better! Maybe that walk in the rain on Saturday cleansed his system! :)

Monday we learned some BIG news...it looks like our next stop is South Africa! Themba got back to me saying that they've already began planning for us next year and have our rooms scheduled and everything! Turns out the meeting they were supposed to have in May was postponed to next week in July, but it will only be formalities - they can't wait to see us next year! We don't all the details yet, but if you want to learn more about the organization and where we'll be living, check out some of these websites! Wow - we are sooooooo excited! Watch this spot for more details as we learn them!

The best one to check out to learn more about the team that runs the schools is http://thembatrust.net/ (check out the "photo album")

http://www.thembatrust.co.za/

http://www.lcms.org/ca/worldrelief/themba/detail.asp?pg=ThembaTrust (check out the "gallery" and watch the vidoe on Reinhild Neibuhr - she is who we are working with currently. Also the documentary is great to watch too).


http://www.lcms.org/pages/print.asp?print=1&NavID=11740&path=%2Fpages%2Frpage.asp (this is an article the LCMS wrote about Themba)

Also, if you want to see on a map where we will be, the town/village is called Dirkesdorp. It is in the Mpumalanga province and the nearest big city is Johannesburg (which is about 3.5 hours north-west of Dirkesdorp). If you google map it you should be able to find it. :)

July 1-7

It's winter holidays! All the kids are on break and so the holiday programs are starting up next week. At Trinity they will have BLAST from Wed-Fri and the new church plant in Summerhill will have Turbo Time Tue-Thur. I met with the leaders Tuesday night to discuss my role in doing the music for the programs. Ken and I will create a cd for Turbo Time to use since they have plenty of volunteers to help lead whereas Blast needs more leaders. I enjoyed the brainstorming and coming up with song ideas - the main theme for the week will be Jesus Is Our Superhero and the kids will learn about God through David and Goliath, Daniel and the Lions Den and Mary being visited by angels. So, the main theme song for the week will be My God is So Big. We'll teach the kids Lions for Daniel-day and sing a Christmas carol for Mary-day. I love these holiday programs (like mini-VBS).

Wednesday I got most of my work done at church so that I could take time off when Ken gets home on Thursday! Also had our music team practice - we lead this Sunday and we're introducing another new song that I wrote, Psalm 145 (since we're reading Psalm 145 in the lectionary).

Thursday Ken came home, although, he came back sick :( It was probably something he ate or drank that had to get through his system. So he took it easy for Thursday and most of Friday. Friday evening I led the youth band practice and then helped him lead youth group (Pastor Max showed up to help too - the other leader was gone on holidays, hence I came to help). It was great to be working with the youth again - I've missed hanging out with them during Bible studies!

Saturday Tony had his birthday party at 10am at the 10-pin bowling alley! It was really fun, although we didn't bowl so well (it's been years since we've set foot in the alley). That morning the weather also did some strange things - like snow/hail in Palmy! That was pretty crazy and lasted all day until the sun came out in the late afternoon!

Our backyard


winter wonderland!


hail stones


Ken bowling


Pizza party after the games!


Sunday our team was on and God was totally in control - we hadn't all practiced together for three weeks (last week Ken wasn't there, the week before two other members weren't...) but everything ran smooth and the congregation loved the new Psalm song! That's the great thing about being worship director - I can write new music and try it out on the congregation to see if it's any good! :)

Monday Ken still wasn't feeling so well, so we just took it easy and enjoyed resting. Please continue to keep him in your prayers as he battles this bug! Ah, but it is good to have him home again!