Celebrate!

We had many reasons to celebrate on Sunday! As a church, we celebrated the ten years that Shore Community Christian Church has been a vibrant presence on the North Shore of Auckland. As a team, we celebrated a job well done in addition to a job being done! We have been working on helping Shore with this celebration since shortly after we arrived. It was a great first project for our team.

One of our board members and his wife, Bill and Verna Weber, flew over from the states to help celebrate God's faithfulness at Shore, which was the first church plant done by South Pacific Christian Fellowship. 

Shore Community Christian Church was started by a team of young Americans not too different from our team. The church has met in over five different facilities, ministers to people from many different nations, has created a movement through the television program Connection Resources, formerly knows as Shore On Air, and is growing in many ways. Currently, there are five staff members, all of whom are Kiwi. It is so encouraging to us to think that in ten years, there could be a church here in New Zealand celebrating just like we did Sunday.

 

The memorabilia wall was one of the main things that Joe and I devoted our time too. We were in charge of collecting and organizing memorabilia in a way that people could get a glimpse of the last ten years. 

Tonight, we are off to the South Island of New Zealand to begin the first of our survey work. On the last blog I updated you with the work we will be doing in Christchurch, Gore/Mataura, and Queenstown. We appreciate your prayers for this trip as we will be looking at potential sites to plant a church as well as ministering with other churches. We will update you when we return! 

Busy, Busy

Clever title, I know! It has been a while since I have had a chance to sit down and update you with our lives. The reason it had been a while is becuase life is busy right now! Since summer break is officially over, all of the regular programs have resumed. In additional to regular programs, our team is busy with many other responsibilites.

Joe has begun leading a "Life Group" or small group for 14-16 year old boys. He is excited about this as are the boys in his group.

Children's programs have started back up on Sundays. Joe helps with the "SuperKids" program on Sunday mornings, which is year one through year six (kindegarten-fifth grade.)He does large group teaching as well as helps with a smaller group of kids. I help with the "Dynamites" on Sundays which is two to five year olds. I will be doing some large group teaching with them but I also just help set up and play with the kids. Being as Shore does not have their own facility, it is important for us to get to the school where we meet quite early to begin the set-up process.

This weekend we will celebrate Shore's ten year anniversary. When our team first arrived in New Zealand we were told about this event and also given a lot of responsibility for helping to make it happen. We have been working on the the collectiona and presentation of memorabilia, videos, interviews, and getting things together for Sunday morning service at a different venue. In addition to a celebration service on Sunday morning, there is a talent show on Friday night and a cookout at the beach Saturday afternoon.

Next Tuesday, our team is taking a trip to the South Island of New Zealand. This trip has many different purposes. We will fly into Christchurch where we will spend three days doing survey work. We have spent the last few weeks doing all of the studies that we can from Auckland, and now we are ready to go and see what these demographics look like in real life, we will conduct some street interveiws, and learn from church leaders with whom we are meeting. From Christchurch we will drive down to Gore where we weill spend 4-5 days working with the Christian Church at Matuara. Our team is lined up to be in charge of the church service on Sunday, hold youth events, train youth leaders, and get to know people in the church. From Gore, we will drive back up to Queenstown where we will be assisting at a weekend of family camp. Camp will not only be a great time to work together as a team with more planning of services and events, but a great way to conntect with leaders from around New Zealand. I have been the point person for this trip, so it has kept me busy with travel arrangements, making those connections happen, and putting an agenda together for our team.

The week we get back from the south is the "Week of Prayer" at the church. We are helping a little bit with the set up of events for that week. Though we will be gone for the start of the "Week of Prayer" there are many preparations that need to take place!

In addition to the extra activities, we have been doing our regualr weekly survey survery work, our regualr work at the Hub, meeting with a Life group (our age) and continue to meet new people and have people over as often as we can!

I know this update was long and pictureless, but I hope it catches you up to speed with what our lives look like!

City Lights

I just got back from seeing the movie I Am Legend with some guys and it put me in an emotional slump. The movie was good, but it wasn’t that good. When I walked in the door at home I found Amy, exhausted, half-asleep on the couch at 8:30 PM.
The reason behind it is that today we participated in an event called City Lights. It emotionally drained us. The main responsibility that Amy and I had was to watch over the Bounce Castle as kids jumped inside of it. We were in a pretty rough neighborhood of South Auckland. Many of the kids that we met were orphans or come from difficult families. There were several 4 and 5 year-old children with the mental and social aptitude of someone half their age. There were kids covered from head to foot in parts of the body where worms and parasites were attacking them. There were foster children with dirtier mouths and harder hearts than any kids of the same age that I have ever met, and my career is in working with youth. When these kids were contrasted against the children who come from healthy homes, it was gut wrenching.
Our hearts were breaking for these beautiful little people and it was an unspoken relief when we were asked to go and pick up trash at an open air market. But we were inspired by the people who work with these tough little kids, day in and day out. We realize that even in these seemingly desperate situations, God has not forgotten His precious little children. The fact that they were picked up and brought to this function by committed volunteer youth workers from local churches testifies to God's concern and His goodness.
A God who cares about the most marginalized people is a God who I want to serve. A God who loves hurting children is a God who I am pleased to love. This is why Amy and I came to New Zealand. We came because the God who cares about the marginalized and loves the hurting is on a mission to heal this broken world. We came because He has graciously invited us to participate in His mission. And at the end of a day in which God has broken and drained us, we are so thankful that He has used it to heal and enliven those children who are broken and hurting.
At the end of the day the God that we serve and love is the God who serves and loves us. Praise be to God.

You can see pictures and learn more about City Lights at citylights.co.nz.