Just found this very pratical site
with all sorts of useful stuff
around environment and God.
(Had to call it that -
Surprised by Joy has already been done)
Monday
We arrive at the marae
and this guy comes over and says hi to Steve.
Dave met Steve in 1986, when they were both picking apples
as part of the Apples outreach in Nelson.
Cool.
Wednesday I sit down after leading worship
(and cleaning up after myself)
and notice Dave has been joined by a wife and daughter.
Cool.
Wife walks out.
My mouth opens.
I know her.
i think it's her.
I'm sure it is.
It is my old friend, Joy.
Break time
I wander out
find Joy
say hi, big hug.
How neat to see her.
Joy and I met in December 1985
whilst cycling around Nelson and Golden Bay
on an ISCF camp.
She is one of the world's treasures.
She, Jo and I got to know each other then
(actually I think she and Jo were already friends)
and we spent lots of time together
biking places
talking
supporting
being friends.
I remember Joy as one full of goodness... and well, joy.
She was always gentle, always kind, always caring.
I think she shifted up to Wellington to study
and we lost contact once we left school.
I bumped into her somewhere...
maybe even back in Roxburgh
but haven't seen her for .... years.
It was SOOOOO nice to see her again.
And she hasn't changed.
Still as lovely as ever.
And when we talked further about spirituality and stuff
there was a resonance and sense of agreement
that isn't always there with old friends.
Do you know what I mean?
Sometimes you meet up with someone again
after many years
and you seem like you are now worlds apart
in terms of priorities and perspectives.
Anyway,
that's not how it was with Joy.
But wait,
there's more.
Joy came to a workshop I was doing,
on Shaping Connective Worship.
We started talking about PowerPoint
and I pulled out the one I used last Sunday
about the Nor-west Festival.
Joy is looking at it oddly.
"What church do you go to?", she asks.
"Opawa Baptist", I reply.
"My brother goes there. He was telling me about this, the kites and the Spirit".
I think my mouth opened again, "Who?"
and it is Peter. Peter E.
Of course, Peter.
Peter who has that same lovely essential goodness.
My world has shrunk again
in a lovely embracing way.
OK
So I am typing away,
and want to say that something
"May be a useful starting point".
And that is what I say in my head.
And I start to type,
and I see a useful
and know it must be an useful
cos that is the rule
except when i type an useful,
it looks silly
and MS Word helpfully tells me it is wrong...
a useful is correct
of course it is!
But why?
Tell me please!
(Kelli are you there??)
Just pulled the Fragile tag off our backpack
and hung it around my wrist
(briefly!)
in an acknowledgement that I am feeling fragile.
Often the way, coming back from involvement in stuff
(monday - thursday in wellington at Praxis' emerging church hui)
Good time
appreciated meeting people
connecting
reconnecting
a little inputting
but come home
to a major work deadline
and a sense of fragility, and slight overwhelmingness.
no matter
weekend away next weekend (YAY)
and I have the coolest story to tell
p'haps when i meet my deadline...
Photos of the NorWest Festival here.
It was a great week.
I am shattered.
From Thursday nights seminar:
Things to doL Spirit as Fire
Enjoy the warmth of the fire.
Imagine accepting the love of God,
just as you accept the warmth of the fire.
Mum phoned today to ask me to check her email.
Their computer is off being serviced.
So I waded through 285 msgs on their account
(they were away for 2 weeks)
deleted probably 250 that we spam
and found four that I thought they may want sooner rather than later.
Sure enough, one contained content she drove over to collect.
She arrived bearing a preserving jar of soup
which has helped my busyness
and will contribute to feeding us
at our fast-paced
pre Derek Lind concert dinner.
Thanks Mum!
And the cappuccino?
Had that at church this afternoon
after Steve called to say
"Come on down and have coffee"
with the on-trial coffee machine
Gooooood!
Still feeling internally stressed
but grinning at my loved by God-, loved by Steve-, loved by Mum-ness
A l o n g time ago
I worked summer holidays
on the orchards in Roxburgh, Central Otago.
Working alongside me,
for a couple of seasons,
where Dan and Mati from Samoa.
They were dreaming of going to Brazil
to work with the street kids
but that is a story for another day!
Anyway
lunch time would come around
we would make our cups of tea.
Dan and Mati would make theirs in BIG preserving jars.
they needed BIG drinks...
thirsty lads.
This is a busy season for me.
Five "upfront" involvements in 7 days.
Plus usual paid work (with major deadlines).
And the other usual stuff of being a mother, wife, partner, pastor's wife.
Tired, I am.
Last night I talked about images of the Spirit
and how we can engage with the Spirit
when we come across everyday elements.
They can serve to remind us of God's Spirit.
An example was
when you drink a glass of water
to acknowledge your need for God's living water.
Today
I am drinking my water from a preserving jar.
Desperate for living water.
(Although a giant cappuccino would be great too!)
I am giving thee worship with my whole life,
I am giving thee assent with my whole power,
I am giving thee praise with my whole tongue,
I am giving thee honor with my whole utterance,
I am giving thee reverence with my whole understanding,
I am giving thee offering with my whole thought,
I am giving thee praise with my whole fervor,
I am giving thee humility in the blood of the lamb,
I am giving thee love with my whole devotion,
I am giving thee kneeling with my whole desire,
I am giving thee love with my whole heart,
I am giving thee affection with my whole sense,
I am giving thee my existence with my whole mind,
I am giving thee my soul, O God of all gods.
(Early Scottish Prayer)
(from here, from The Complete Book of Christian Prayer, 48)
(that pretty much covers it!)
Jo can be found here
(eating chocolate?
overreacting?
singing?
whatever!)
Pentecost has been
and we at Opawa
are thinking this week about what that actually means.
What it means Biblically
what it means theologically
what it means practically
to live post-Pentecost
after the Spirit has been sent.
How the Holy Spirit can (and does)
influence our everyday.
Thursday night I am taking a seminar
that I am titling:
everyday elements, everyday rituals.
Taking some of the spirit as water, air, fire, earth themes
and working them into things that we may find ourselves
bumping into in our everyday.
I like that!
One of my passions is to help people
connect with God in their everyday lives.
God has, after all, placed so many reminders
of God's existence in our everyday.
I want to be one who acknowledges and celebrates them!
I spent Wednesday in Auckland
at a Church Planting Forum
with ten leaders from the Baptist Churches of NZ.
I was mostly very encouraged
by the scope of the outcomes of the meeting
the freedom around establishing new congregations
for our diverse society.
Here's a Summary I wrote;
(unauthorised at present!)
I'm writing it up for approval
- so you may like to pray for approval!
We recognise that our socio-culturally and ethnically diverse society needs diverse expressions of church.
Therefore we want to deliberately and proactively encourage and resource the establishment of new congregations throughout New Zealand.
We see these being both “church plants” in areas of population growth, as well as new congregations (linked with existing churches), that may or may not eventually become constituted churches.
We affirm the utilisation of a variety of models for these new congregations, which will result in a wide range of expressions of church, all having the aim of seeing people find and grow in faith in Jesus Christ.
Interdependence between congregations/churches is recognised as a healthy interrelationship, to be valued over dependence or independence.
Racing around this afternoon
just before going to the library
looking for Prague
(a book that is overdue).
Perhaps Steve returned it before he left on Wednesday
(I was in Auckland for the day so don't know).
Wandering around the library
spying Prague
searching for clues
- is this the copy we had? -
No idea.
I shall have to ask Steve,
"Where is Prague?"
I have just been sent a copy of an article
that will go in the next DayStar magazine.
It was really nice to read it and think,
"Wow, that sounds great. What a fantastic thing to do"
Especially as
... it was about Opawa's Growth Coaching.
Well done to Julie and Marie for capturing the essence of growth coaching so well in the article.
And cheers to Steve, Norma, Jas
and all the Opawa growth coaches who have enabled this to begin!
Tuesday night at Espresso was great.
Coffee
Welcome
An opening ritual that gathered us
An articulation of our "guidelines" for discussion
The question, introduced and kicked off by Anne (and a friend!)
and then discussed
people adding little bites, little bits
from life, from Bible, from theology.
Gently, generously listening
Adding, enhancing.
Accepting, affirming.
Then the person whose question it was
was allowed a right of reply.
A closing ritual.
Followed by a brief evaluation,
asking, How was it?
What could be done better?
And so we gather weekly from Tuesday 31 May!
Yay.
Espresso is on tonight.
Another trial run - this time with (real!) people invited along!
I am looking forward to it,
to thinking and reflecting together.
To seeing what shape it will take,
where it will end up,
how it will help others (and me)
grow and deepen our relationships with God.
Amy blogs here: Just as I am (or should that be: "Just as I, Amy".
Another of the world's goodies, Amy is a young woman of faith, hope and courage.
I feel like an old woman-
First game of the season yesterday.
Grading day.
We lost (of course)
It was heaps of fun.
Did ya know...
In the 2001 census, 15% of New Zealanders
aged 15 years and over
indicated that they are involved in some sort of voluntary work.
For people whose highest qualificaiton was in religious studies
(don't ask, was just the only/best way to access the data I needed)
the proportion is a massive 51%.
Nice to know that people put their action where their beliefs are
and get out there and get involved in the community!
(For grads I surveyed from 25 Christian training colleges in NZ,
the figure was 75%, current students came in at 63%)
.. two newbie bloggers!
Sharyn and Simona have entered the blog arena.
I know these women a tiny bit...
actually Sharyn is related to me in a long, winding, distant (and via-Steve) way.
(And they boogied their way thru Jack Johnson with us.)
In my humble, unbiased opinion,
I declare them to be "goodies"
and well worth a read.
Go see!
(And keep it up, you two!)
Here's a great opportunity for New Zealanders to have their say about family.
The Families Commission is asking families with dependent children to tell them:
what is important to family life
and what makes it work well.
They'd like to hear about what gets in the way,
and the choices you've made to ensure family life is manageable.
They're also interested in what you think would make your family life better.
A great opportunity.
I have the hugest respect for Lyn Campbell who is a Commissioner and no doubt highly involved in this project.
A chance to discuss and dream. Be heard!
Yay!
Stevie is home.
Lovely day at the bach.
Cricket.
Yummy lunch
Warm sun
Great views.
And as we left...
a photographer setting up to take a pic of OUR view.
Cool!