Archive for November, 2009

Talofa Samoa

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

samoan beach

From tomorrow morning, this will be the view that will greet me and She Whom Must Be Obeyed each morning for the next week.  After a family meal of chicken piri piri with our girls and a friend who will live with them for a week, we’re heading off to Aggie Grey’s Lagoon Resort in Samoa – most recently, the location for Survivor Samoa – for our first holiday without kids for 18 years.  A bit of saving and a bit of a bonus and a bit of a travel agent discount have all been combined to make this happen so we’re planning to make the most of the break and really relax.  As we have met and worked with a few Samoan folk in New Zealand, we are looking forward to seeing something of their homeland.  Having booked this trip months back and collected the tickets on the morning of the recent tsunami, we were a little conflicted as to whether we should still take the holiday there with so many having lost so much on that day.  However, the advice we have been given is that because tourism is a mainstay of the economy, just spending our tourist dollars will be of benefit.  Be that as it may, we also hope to hook up with a local contact in Apia for a little mini-mission while we’re there.  With that, I’m off for a plate of chicken piri piri.

All Whites through to World Cup!

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

 

 

New Zealand are through to the World Cup!  The goalkeeper of the family and I joined her team at a team mates place up the valley for a pot luck dinner before watching the match together.

Bahrain gave some opposition and displayed their talent for acting in the first half.  However, Rory Fallon’s rocketing header just before half time and Mark Paston’s save of the questionable penalty were stellar!  Despite the temptation to fall back and defend which seemed likely early in the second half, the All Whites licked it up a notch in the last 20 minutes with several attacking raids and a few shots on goal.

I confidently predict there will be no beer left in New Zealand by morning!

Chelsea's Thoughts

Friday, November 13th, 2009

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcbeth/

What is friendship? When we are in kindergarten, our friends are those who have the cool crayons that they are willing to share. Friends are easily made and there is no conflict, no fights and no racism. Love beats all things when you are young […] Tiffs are inevitable, but the saddest thing is when a friendship falls to pieces over the smallest wee thing. In kindergarten, fights would be resolved with a hug and a kiss, and then we would all play on the playground for hours like nothing had happened.

The lovely little passage above resonates with me – the simplicity of our early friendships, the fiery fury of the playground breakups and unconditional love of the before home-time makeups.  It brought to mind the following passage from Robert Fulghum’s lovely book ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten‘.

Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.  Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday school. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder.

Isn’t it great then that the first passage was written by Chelsea, a young aspiring writer here in New Zealand, in the second post to her new blog, Chelsea’s Thoughts.  I must confess a smidgen of bias here, for Chelsea is a close friend of my daughter – and, bless her, cites my blog as an inspiration to write!  Never the less, I think the world needs more enthusiastic young writers like Chelsea – writers that have a great spark and a lovely turn of phrase, so add her to your blogroll, read her posts and comment with encouraging words.

YWAM New Zealand Ship Tour

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

I had the great pleasure to meet KB and the team from Create Emerge and YWAM Wollongong last night, when they gave a presentation on the YWAM New Zealand Ship Tour.

“The Ship From October to December, 2009, the ‘Pacific Link’ ship will be a hub, traveling to 8 different port towns/cities in New Zealand. It will spend about a week in each port, with a variety of events planned around it… school group tours, on-board presentations, and city-wide youth events. In the three to four weeks before the ship docks, there will be teams serving in the community, and presenting a missions call in Christian high schools, churches, youth groups, and young adults groups”

KB kindly handed me a copy of Engage, a missions mobilisation resource package by the Create Emerge and Create International teams.  It contains two DVDs packed with video, slide shows and PDFs that profile the work of those on outreach or in the mission field.  To get a taste of the quality and depth of the contents, check out Voices From The Frontlines.

If you can make it, I can thoroughly recommend hooking up with these folk or the ship on what is it’s valedictory tour before taking on a new role.

That's my King!

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Twenty-five years after the original sermon was delivered, this is one of many videos out there based on S. M. Lockridge‘s six and a half minute description of Jesus Christ.  First saw this a few weeks back and was reminded of it again this evening by my daughter.