October 14-20

Have you seen Wall-E yet? If not, go see it! Tuesday night Ken led a movie Bible study this month on the film...although only three people attended so instead of actually have the study, he is giving them copies of the study for them to do in their small home groups (the study was going to be interactive needing at least a small group to work through all the questions together.) But it was a very thought-provoking movie; a sci-fi for kids basically. But I won't give any more away so that you can go watch it for yourself!



Wednesday Ken went back to teaching after a two week holiday break - it was good to be back in the classroom and he is sad that there is only six more weeks of teaching left! I went to the last Segue Music Conference meeting in Paraparamu. Looks like registration numbers are low, but that's to be expected as this is the first time the Lutheran church has put on a national music conference. Hopefully those that attend will benefit from the weekend (the 25-26th Oct) and maybe in two years when they re-launch another Segue weekend, more will come. I am part of planting the seed and pray that God's will be done.



Thursday at the PLT and Directors meeting we talked a lot about the pros and cons of going ahead and hiring another youth worker next year since we are pastor-less at the moment. We have decided to go ahead and put out notices in Australia and New Zealand for youth workers (Luther or not) and see what happens next month re: the pastor. Currently, the LCNZ President, Rob Erickson, is in Australia meeting graduates from the Lutheran University there to see if there are any eligible for New Zeland. IF one would come, it would be in Jan/Feb 09. We will know sometime next month what will happen with this and if it is affirmative that we have a pastor coming, then for sure we will go ahead and hire a new youth worker. If we don't have a pastor coming, then I think the church will re-talk about the pros and cons of getting a youth worker in the absence of a pastor. Please keep all this in your prayers.

This weekend Ken took five youth on a confirmation retreat to Riversdale. There are seven youth being confirmed on November 2, but only five could attend. It turned out to be a great group though - I went along as a cook and Sharolyn Mollet came along as a prayer intercessor. The youth who came great exponentially over the weekend. Ken taught three basic faith expressions: the faith we confess (the mouth), the faith we are confirming (the heart), and the calling that this faith places on our lives for us to live out in action (the hands). It was a great way to teach the kids an overview wrap up of the year's study, as well as teach them that confirmation is not graduation, but instead is simply the beginning of our faith journey as we tell the congregation our faith that we believe in our hearts, and then begin to live out that faith by getting involved in our church community in service. We were very blessed to have a sunny Saturday so that the kids were able to go swimming and hang out on the beach for free time - check out the "prayer station" that one of the youth made!

Confirmation retreat at Riversdale!




The Bach


Sharolyn and Pepper looking at the "prayer window"




A cute little church in Riversdale that meets monthly for worship




The prayer station on the beach the youth made



Game time!







Not baseball - that's a cricket bat!




Some pretty spring scenes



















The leaders of the retreat


The whole gang



We got back Sunday evening from the retreat. Monday we went into the office to get some odd jobs done as we will be gone Tuesday-Sunday at Church Workers Conference and Segue. We're looking forward to relaxing come Labour Day on the 27th!!