Gnomes, Cricket, and BBQ

Our weekend began with theft and will end with baptism-things are improving quite quickly! The youth activity for Friday night this week entailed kidnapping a gnome from a church member's garden and completing different tasks around the city. There were heaps of students at youth on Friday night who split up into different groups. Each adult drove a different group of students around to complete the tasks. Pictures were to be taken of the gnome doing various activities such as drinking coffee at a cafe, going for a swim at the beach, getting caught by a security guard, shopping for veggies, and the list goes on with much more crazy and embarrassing tasks! 

Saturday morning we went to our first Cricket match. A student from the youth group plays cricket for his school. We had played some pick-up backyard cricket while we were on the south island, but other than that, have very little experience with it. This was a very good cultural experience for us! As we got closer to the match, we realized that we had no clue what was culturally appropriate as far as where to sit, how to cheer, how to react if the ball comes near you, and how close or far to sit from the match. This match taught us some about cricket, but much more about the culture in NZ. Competitive high school sports practice on average of two days a week for less than two hours. When someone made a mistake in the game, everyone laughed and joked about it. We couldn't tell who the coaches were, in the states they are usually the ones standing nearby yelling plays at the team, but no one was doing that. At one point, a ball went over the fence and some players sat down, some went to get drinks, it turned into a perfect time for a break! 

This evening we had a BBQ with some other church planters in the area. These church planters are Kiwi and their church has been running for almost five years. They were very encouraging to us and our plans for church planting. It was a great way to do some informal survey work as they told us about some of the challenges of reaching people who are content without God. 

Tomorrow Joe and I will both be teaching separate kids groups at church and helping with the youth fundraiser in between services: a car wash. After church we will be joining some of the youth for a baptism at a nearby beach. 

Queenstown- South Island Trip Part III

The last leg of our trip was spent in Queenstown. Queenstown may sound familiar to you because it is known as the adventure capital of the world! Though there was much adventure to be had, we had other plans. We were in Queenstown to help out at a weekend of camp at Lakeland Park Christian Camp. The weekend was a family camp and it was sponsored by the Christian Church at Mataura, the church we had been with the previous weekend. The camp is a connecting point for many of the Christian church leaders on the south island of New Zealand. 

There were a little more than 50 people at the camp and it was a great weekend for it. 

Joe and I were busy at camp helping with the kids. Joe lead the high school age group. It was a great experience for him as two of the students in the group of four were not involved with a church. He taught a basic overview of how to read and study the Bible and the students really got into it. Their time in 'class' would be over and students would sit with him at lunch to ask more questions and to learn as much as they could. That was very encouraging! 

I helped out with the kids ages two to ten. It was such a great experience for me, I helped with lessons, crafts, songs, and hung out with the kids during free time. 

 

The rest of our team helped with activities at the camp as well. 

It was a great weekend for us to lead and work together in addition to spending time with different christian leaders and families. We learned how to play cricket, got to experience the chill of the south island (single digit temperatures...Celsius that is...so in the 40's-50's Fahrenheit, but no central heating!), and were able to enjoy camp-New Zealand style. 

Camp ended on Sunday night but our team stayed at the facilities for our last two nights. We spent all day Monday working on team things (planning for more survey, debriefing about Christchurch, discussing how our team works together, etc...) We were able to spend Tuesday morning in Queenstown before our flight left for Auckland. We decided that being as we were in the adventure capital, we should probably have some adventure so we decided to do the Queenstown Luge. We were also told that we couldn't visit Queenstown without trying Patagonia- we were glad we tried it! It was a fun way to end our busy trip south! 

Southland - South Island Trip Part II

The second leg of our trip was a little bit slower paced, though very much out of our comfort zones. It was interesting to see pieces of Kiwi culture that we hadn't seen much of in the city-life in Auckland. After Christchurch, we drove down to Southland, the Southern region of New Zealand to Gore/Mataura, (we even drove on the Clinton-Gore Highway that goes in between a small town call Clinton to Gore!) 

Gore can easily be compared to small town America with a Kiwi twist! The small town America is that everyone knows everyone. The Kiwi twist is how laid back the Kiwis in Southland are. At first this laid back lifestyle was hard for our team to get used to. We had jus

t come off of a couple of survey days that were planned and packed full. In Gore, you go with the flow and plans are typically made as they are about to happen. Each of us couples on the team stayed with a different family from the church we were working with in Gore 

which helped to give us a realistic picture of life in Southland. 

Our main objective in going to Southland was to help out at the Mataura Christian Church. Mataura CC is considered a healthy church that pulls members from both Gore and Mataura, two small towns near one another. Our team lead the Sunday services, helping with youth and children, leading worship, and preaching. We also planned a Sunday tea (dinner) for the church with games and information about our team and why we are in New Zealand. Other churches came to the tea from over an hour away, giving us almost 50 people to entertain that evening!

Over the next few days we spent time with families from the church as well as with church leaders. Joe had an opportunity to meet with, train, and encourage the youth leaders. 

We felt so blessed to be able to stay with the family that we did. We learned so much about kiwi life as the Taylor's welcomed us into their family for a large part of the week. We felt right at home as we played with their kids, ate meals together, and had some insightful conversations about the condition of the church in New Zealand. 

God continually provided for us on this trip though places to stay, unplanned conversa

tions, and deep relationships that were made. Though we were meant to encourage the church in Mataura, we were encouraged by them. And even though we weren't intentionally doing 

nally doing survey work, God lead us to people who shared their hearts with us about church planting in New Zealand that has g

iven us great insight. 

The last day in Southland we traveled a little further south to Bluff, the southern most city, to go to the southern most point in New Zealand! We even ate at the southern most McDonalds in the world! 

Keep checking in for the third and final part of our trip! 

Christchurch-South Island Part I

We returned home tonight from our trip to the South Island completely exhausted. Our trip was a success on many levels. In visiting so many different places over the two weeks that we were away, there is a lot to share. 

The first part of our trip was spent in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. We were able to be in Christchurch for two and a half days. We spent those two days meeting with different church leaders in Christchurch, conducting street interviews, and observing people in the city. Since we had already done the demographic studies (learned about the makeup of the city through statistics about the people who live there) it was very helpful to be in the city to see these demographics come to life with the people with whom we spoke. 

Our time in Christchurch confirmed what we had predicted, and taught us even more than we expected. We found that very few people went to church (less than 5% of the people we spoke with), very few people were interested in ever setting foot inside a church building, many people could not even give us the name of a church in the city (of 400,000 people.) We spoke with people who laughed at the idea of anyone wanting to start a new church, letting us know that no one is interested in what a church has to offer. Others we spoke with said that there is nothing wrong with church, they even had their name on membership lists, but they couldn

't remember the last time they had gone. We met people with a wide variety of spiritual interests. 

On Sunday, Hamish was preaching and talked for a moment about persecution in the church in other parts of the world. He said something that summarizes Christianity in New Zealand. Hamish said "The church in New Zealand isn't being persecuted for it's beliefs, something far worse is happening to the church; in New Zealand, no one cares."  With the attitude that people have of not caring, we are continually reminded of the hard road ahead of us. 

With Christchurch being the first of our survey trips, it would be premature for us to make a decision about this city yet. We will continue to pray about Christchurch as we conduct more survey work in other areas. We definitely saw a need for God's love in this city, though we imagine that we will find this in many of the areas that we visit. Please continue to pray with us as we continue to conduct survey work. 

Check back in as Part II of our trip will be coming soon. 

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.